When the Lights Go Out
by ArouraLeona
Summary: Darkness consumes the guild, and Gajeel senses horrible things in the shadows. The absence of light is only the 1st torture darkness brings. Romance, but in a horror type way. Rated for language. *EPILOGUE: SEED* Complete and thanks!
1. When the Lights Go Out

When the Lights Go Out

Gajeel was thankful for a few things:

1) It didn't happen during the lunch or happy hour ("dinner") rushes. 2) It was near month's end, so lots of people were out making rent money. 3) The strongest of them had already covered their rent and were busy not being busy (being absolutely shitfaced) at the guild. 4) Wendy had been persuaded by all the super-late-night drunks to stay in the house and make sure no one blacked out. That one he was really freaking thankful for … they were going to start hurting each other eventually, and she would be needed.

Fried had felt it before it happened. It was the only bit of luck they'd had so far. Because the green-haired bastard felt the confinement spell spreading over the building, he was able to slow it and alter it … somewhat.

He abolished the condition that cut off their oxygen. Also, he was able to keep the communication lacrima functional long enough to send two messages. The first to Cana, who was away on a job and could likely rally the other Fairy Tail members outside, and the second to the Council. Either this was another attempt by the Council to take them down, or this was another guild. If it was the latter then the Council was obligated to provide assistance.

Not that they _would_. Or that their help would be worth shit. But they couldn't say Fairy Tail didn't notify them later on when the inquiries were happening.

The rest of the confinement seemed to go as planned, though after the initial burst Fried lost track of the spell and couldn't tell them its full scope. It was an active spell, not passive like many of Fried's enchantments.

There was no light. None at all. Right away several of the others tried to create light, but everyone failed.

Then there was the echoing. It might just be the darkness, but he was pretty sure things sounded a whole lot different. There was a lot of talking. It was how they were keeping up with each other when no one could see. Even the cats couldn't see. It made him wonder if the condition was more blindness than darkness, but unlike the others, he wasn't speaking as much.

There were also the sounds that no one was owning up to. The low whistles. The humming. The almost unnoticeable tiny clatters and clicks.

Then there was impatience/paranoia/agitation. Fried had felt that one before he lost sight of the spell, and said it would be the most dangerous. They wouldn't know when it would set in, or how many of them it would affect. Fried said everyone would react differently, and it would probably be slow. Taking one or two at a time. That emotional enchantments were notoriously tricky and that some might not be affected at all.

But for those who were, the effects would be harmful for everyone. It would lead to fear and anger. Probably rioting. If they were truly unlucky – mass murder.

He'd be willing to bet some serious coin that the enchantment wasn't set to disperse until they were all dead. He was also certain that the spell had added a few players to this sick little game to help the killing along. In case they managed to overcome the paranoia and not hurt their fellow guild members. Like with the sounds, he could smell things that shouldn't be there with them.

He guessed that was why Wendy was sitting so quietly and still beside him. And so close. It wasn't like he and the kid were best friends. But she would smell the strangers too. She would also doubt without anything to back her up. The smell wasn't human or animal or anything like that. It was just … different and not them. So she sat on the bench beside him with the side of her hand touching his arm.

And he let her.

"If only we had a little light," the white-haired girl who _wasn't_ from Edolas and whose name he could never remember said. Lizzy? Shit, it wasn't like he cared.

"A man doesn't need light!"

Shit. What a pain in the ass both of those siblings were. But mainly the oaf of a brother. The brother was an idiot.

Several people told the oaf to shove it … not sure if that was the impatience setting in or just the usual smart mouthed sort of response guild members offered the man-crazy giant.

"You don't want 'a little' light," he said and everyone close to him (except Wendy) gasped. He hadn't said a word after roll call. It had been two hours. "A little light will make long shadows. Make the effect of this even worse."

"Can't get worse," some dreary soul whined. Gajeel heard at least three people punch the fool as the bunny girl and a few others shrieked.

"You idiot!" Lucy cried. Others called him worse things. "You'll jinx us!"

Suddenly there was the smell of starfire and an unearthly wind. A low groan and labored breathing.

"Princess," a new voice said.

"Virgo. Have any of you found anything? Crux..." Lucy's voice was much weaker than it should be for just one spirit out, at least that's what he thought. He hadn't spent a whole lot of time with the chick or knew a whole lot about her type of magic, but still she'd done some shit. She took out that crazy Bixlow bastard. Twice.

"Crux is visiting other spirits, and their spirit mages if allowed. He will not leave the spirit world too often and tire you, princess."

"Have they been any help? Do they know anything?"

"Crux reports no spirit mages from any of the alliance guilds accept responsibility or knowledge of this occurrence. Loki is out, as you asked, Princess. He has found nothing. I will accept his punishment."

"No punishment, Virgo. Is there anything else?"

Lucy, it turned out, was going to be useful. With them locked down in the building, it seemed the spirit world was the only way to contact anyone outside. Through Lucy's spirits they could relay information to other spirit users, or even better Loki could operate on his own. Carrying messages, fighting inside or out, or tracking down their attacker.

"Capricorn has left on his own and is also looking. He thinks he will only have to pull on your power to exit the spirit world. He can remain here on his own for a day with no ill effects. But you won't be able to battle with us or call on any other gold key spirit. He will need you to travel, Princess.

"Loki says: Shadow Gear is outside. Lady Cana is two hours away. Master Guildartz can be here in a day. Macao will visit the Council. Laki yelled that the building is hers and that she would retrain it to free you, Princess. Blue Pegasus offered help."

"Okay. Thank you, Virgo."

"I await my punishment, Princess.

"No punishment, Virgo." The girl's sigh was indecipherable from a gasp. If he understood right, she had one spirit going in and out of the spirit realm using her power, another doing the same thing only using less power, and this creepy pink-haired maid all out at once.

"I will leave now, Princess."

"No! I … please tell Capricorn to check in every … every hour. I'll have … Crux do the same with me. I might need to fight. I don't want to be weak for a whole day."

Gajeel was shocked. That was surprisingly smart for the bunny girl.

"Anything else, everyone?" she asked.

There was a long quiet while people thought. But if they didn't ask he had to.

"Levi opened a door in an enchantment for me twice now. Can she rewrite a door into this one."

"Those runes are too powerf-" Fried started, but Lucy – tired or not – cut him off.

"Oh what do you know? She got you twice like Gajeel said. Obviously _you're _jealous. At the very least it won't hurt to ask. Besides, the runes are as dark as anything else in here. You don't know what's going to happen to rewrite them either. Might as well let her try!"

Gajeel was grinning. Quite gleefully. He'd never been fond of the enchanter, and as unsocial as he might be he _still_ knew it was a dumb ass idea to insult a girl's best friend. They tend to get bitchy and vicious over shit like that.

After a few other requests and personal messages the spirit left. With her absence people were briefly contemplative. Even in that brief time, the enchantment was able to take an advantage. Silence consumed the place. Almost literally. The lack of sound felt moist. Acidic. It ate at his more sensitive nerves like the bile in a stomach or acid lakes in a subterranean cave.

"We'll do roll call again," Mirajane said in a pleasant voice. The feeling lingered somewhat, but not to the extent that it did before. It crowded around the edges of his ears. Lurking in the spaces between words, licking at his flesh, but unable to stand up to the kindness of Mirajane. "Let's see … This time we'll do it by when you joined, starting with the newest members:

"Pantherlily?"

"Here!"

Gajeel rolled his eyes, not that anyone could see. He was so obviously ex-military.

"Wendy?"

"I'm here!"

"Charle?"

"Yes."

"Gajeel?"

"Yeah."

"Juvia?"

"Juvia is present."

On and on it went. It wasn't the full roster, but he was damn impressed. Mirajane not only remembered who was in the building from the last roll call, but was able to name them in this order, seemingly with no thought at all.

The woman was smarter than she pretended to be.

"Erza?"

"..."

"Erza?" The pleasantness in her voice cracked showing the strength she was using to fight back the hungry silence. "Erza!"

"She's not here." That was the ice kid that Juvia was obsessed with. Gray. Thanks to roll call he actually knew the bastard's name. "She was at our table, but now ..."

"Erza..." several people called out. He heard chairs and tables grind against the floor creating a discordant harmony with whatever was clicking across the room. There were footsteps as people searched the room for her. But it was pointless. The only scent of her in the area was the lingering smell at the table with Gray and Natsu.

"Nothing."

"She's not here."

"Not in the pantry."

"Why the hell would she have been in the pantry?"

"Maybe she had to piss?" Natsu suggested.

"Who the fuck pisses in the pantry?" Gajeel couldn't help but respond.

Lucy huffed at the same time, "Without telling anyone?"

"Sure. You girls are uptight about stuff like that, right?"

"Natsu!" the combination of feminine voices raised in outrage were so in sync that he could not tell who spoke and who didn't.

"We'll have to assume that this is part of the enchantment," Master Makarov told them. Like Gajeel, he hadn't said much, but that meant he could calm them now. "We will send out two groups two check the rest of the building. Stay in your groups. If you find Erza but feel unable to bring her back, return _as a group_ for help."

"I'm going!" Natsu and Gray shouted together.

"Of course. Natsu, Gray, and Happy; you will all take the back of the guild. Gajeel, Wendy, Charle, and Pantherlily; you will take the second floor." He paused, "But Lucy must stay here."

Gajeel didn't argue the order; they were the best choice for the mission. Stronger than many (that creepy fairy-eye bitch was completely useless with the darkness, for example). If they couldn't find and bring Erza back, they had serious problems. Larger problems than the clicky sound so clearly under his table.

Wendy's hand was clutching the two smallest fingers on his right hand. It sounded like some over-imaginative person's idea of what a strange insects feelers should sound like … but to him it was more like rolling dice in a closed fist.

Who knew what it sounded like to her; her hearing was better than his.

Anyway, the teams were the best way to go. It left plenty of strong people with the master in case something went down, and this was a trap to draw them away.

Lucy was complaining about not being able to go, but the old man set her straight. At the moment she was too important as their only means of communication. Gajeel could hear her sulking as he, Wendy, and their cats made their way upstairs.

Not very subtly the clicking divided. One click followed him and the girl. One click followed Salamander and the exhibitionist. And three clicks stayed in the hall.

He put his large knuckled fist on the kid's head. "I'd hold your hand, but I'm starting to think I'll need both of mine. You'll just have to deal, shortstuff."

"She doesn't need you babying her," Charle's sneer was sharp.

"Charle, he was trying to be nice. Please don't be so critical."

"Well, he certainly wasn't trying very hard."

* * *

><p>When they made it up the stairs he immediately wished the Master hadn't sent the little girl with him. There was darkness, there was <em>darkness<em>, and there was _**this**_. Like the silence made physical before, this lightless hell seemed to exist on more than one level.

Thick and hard like solid stone, but more. Suffocating like wool. An empty nothingness that erased the parts of him he could no longer see. Sure he thought he could feel his own arm, but he also thought he could feel darkness too. What was real and what wasn't real was … debatable now.

"Gajeel," Wendy whispered, and a small hand curled around his elbow. Warmth flowed through his muscles. His fingers tingled.

"This is a hell of a lot more than a damn power outage."

"Amazingly astute." Charle's sarcasm didn't go unnoticed, but he ignored it anyway.

Whendy left her hand on his arm for a moment more before removing it. Again he couldn't help but realize that without his nose he'd feel … alone … for lack of a less wimpy word. He experienced a brief and unexpected stab of pity for all of the non-dragonslayers.

But then they probably trusted their ears more than he did at this point. And most of them were fucking idiots, afterall.

* * *

><p>Erza was not upstairs.<p>

Erza was not downstairs.

Gajeel was now beyond sure that there were _things_ in the building with them. But none of them seemed to be Erza Scarlet.

Marajane took roll again (tallest to shortest; she attempted to inject some humor by calling the Master first and last … the attempt fell flat). No one else was missing. Yet. Gajeel was sure the 'yet' was necessary. Still, they were keeping better tabs on each other.

Then there was light.

Then there was Levi.

* * *

><p>Author's note: This one will take a little longer than Plans and Execution did. No daily updates, I don't think. Class is back in session, and paper grading keeps me busy. Still, hopefully this will be interesting. Writing on the fly without any real preplanning … I hope this doesn't degrade into absolute crap. Please review!<p> 


	2. Let There Not Be Light

When the Lights Go Out

Chapter 2

Let There Not Be Light

Unexpected was … inadequate. She was just _there_ with the light. Illuminated as nothing else had been for hours.

"What the hell?" Natsu roared, and Gajeel caught sight of the pretty-in-pink hair. So … Levi wasn't the only one with light. It was a general center of the room light.

But still … it seemed to him to come from her.

"Sorry I didn't give a warning. The test turned into the real thing. I replaced Fried."

"Why?" Bunny chick. A good question.

"Fried might be able to do more to the enchantments from outside, and I should be able to crack things from here. Especially if I can get to the library. Plus the number of people was set when the enchantment closed. Someone had to replace him."

"Heh, bet he's confused as shit," said someone still drenched in shadow.

"Bet he's not," creepy-eye chick spat in return.

Then something crawled up Gajeel's back and jabbed a needle in his neck.

There was screaming.

Light went out.

Light came on.

Something crawled across the ceiling. Something with six legs and a non-restrictive skeletal system.

He blinked and Evergreen was still bitching about Fried's greatness.

What the fuck was that?

"Kid," he said in a low voice, "you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

Not the answer he wanted. Just him then. Shit, what was going on? He wanted to talk to Natsu, but the fire dragon was brooding hard over Erza's disappearance. It was a surprise he even noticed Levi's rather impressive entrance.

At the very least, he and Wendy could both hear the clacking. He could smell things. And now he was having severe hallucinations. If Natsu felt anything, Gajeel was sure he wouldn't be able to hide it. Too straight forward. Not one to keep silent.

Without answers he turned back to Levi, who was in conference with the Master. She _was_ haloed in the light she brought with her, but he still wasn't sure the light was the best idea. It pushed at the shadows in a way that made them wiggle like serpents.

He chuckled under his breath and Lily looked up at him; in the dim light Gajeel read the expression on his face as concern.

"It's this bad and everyone is calm. It'll be interesting to see the change when the shit hits the fan."

The cat squared his small shoulders, "We'll be ready."

But Gajeel wasn't so sure. He felt feelers on the thin skin of his ankle, but when he took a moment to check, there was nothing there. The kid made no movement to indicate anything was wrong with her.

Levi's soft steps brought his eyes to her again. She sat on the bench across the table from him. "The Master said you went after Erza?"

"Weren't you supposed to be trying to get us the hell out of here?" he grumbled.

"Master told me to focus on Erza. Fried might manage something from outside without my help."

"I doubt it," he shot back without realizing what such a declaration might mean to the girl. She was attempting to suppress a smile and color darkened her cheeks.

He could see slithering in the shadows cast by her eyelashes.

No one else said anything. Possibly he was still delusional. Hallucinating.

He could hope. It was wrong that her eyes appeared so shifty. Very unlike herself. Almost scary.

Even with the smile. Especially with the smile. That familiar smile harshly punctuated by the melting darkness at the corners.

Smoke curled in the newborn light. He checked Salamander a number of times, but there was no fire. No fire. Only smoke. And the smell of things he still couldn't put a name to.

* * *

><p>Levi wanted to go search for Erza herself, since she had the light, but since the light was a biproduct of her skin that she created before entering the enchantment, very little of the light would remain. Her leaving would let the darkness take the hall again. It was discussed, it was debated, and Gajeel began to hear and smell the beginning of wear in the guild.<p>

Not long now. They'd be at eachother's throats soon.

In the end, the fact that Levi would need the library outweighed all the other arguments. She would search on the way there and then bring books back to the main hall as quickly as she could. Gajeel wanted to volunteer to go with her, but he couldn't trust himself. And he wanted to see what would happen when the darkness returned. He was tired of the snakes. Tired of the prick of needles. For him darkness was safer than light.

Erza's team – minus Lucy – went with her. But he didn't miss the quick glance she threw his way. He wasn't one of her cronies, but they had briefly been teammates. The tightness in her lips almost, almost looked like betrayal.

Her eyes coiled in shadow.

He managed to contain his revulsion. Besides, whatever played between his skin and his bone was of far more concern. He nudged the kid, but she did not respond to him.

Nudged her again.

Again.

Spoke her name.

Finally she turned. Barely could he distinguish her pale skin from the black that surrounded them. Her face tilted up. There was no face. No eyes. No mouth. No nose. The cheeks were hollow. The chin sharp. He waited for the hallucination to pass. Her face remained unchanged. Her scent was her own. Her own and something else.

What crawled under his skin made lumps in her.

Split her.

Shadow rolled out as smoke. As wind. Even in the darkness he could see it. It was darker than darkness. Moist like clouds and rank like the fumes trapped in a week-old corpse.

He waited for it to take him, but his skin was whole.

There was screaming again, but this time he did not come to. This time the screaming went on for minutes. Hours. Days. People shook her. People touched her. People stayed the fuck away because what she was was not what she should be. What she was was awful.

And Gajeel still didn't have a fucking clue what was going on.

* * *

><p>After all the smoke or fumes or mist dispersed into the air, the girl's body disintegrated. Crumbled like old, rusted metal. There were more screams and moans, and the white cat was catatonic.<p>

Gi hi hi hi, catatonic. Clever.

Not exactly the time, though. He kept the pun to himself. It was gallows humor, and in his experience, not well received.

It wasn't that he liked the kid. Liking wasn't exactly something he did all that well. But she was his kind. A dragonslayer. There were only three of them, and that meant something. She was tough, even for a squirt, and she'd get tougher. Would have gotten. Not now. She'd be a … would have been a ... challenge when she got older, and he'd looked forward to that because he liked challenges.

She was also – he was prepared to grudgingly and _mentally_ admit – his nakama. Not a word he'd say out loud, but true even so. He might notlike her, but he sure as shit didn't want her dead. And it was a flat fucking insult to have her killed right fucking next to him and be unable to do anything to fight it. It wasn't even that he couldn't stop it; it was that he didn't fight it at all.

"Can you feel it?" he growled to everyone and no one. The girl wasn't there to ask anymore. "Something's in here. Something that ate into her." He ground his teeth and glared at nothing. Nothing. Nothingness. "It's eating at me too. Can anyone else fucking feel it?"

No one answered.

Because no one was there.

He felt alone before, but now he actually was.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Not as long as the first chapter, but hey, whatever. The language in this is probably a little … um … eloquent for Gajeel, but as it's 3rd person I'm going with it. And I'm also going a little off of the anime when he meets Edo Gajeel (not a character in the manga) and claims to be cultured or classy or what have you – which made me laugh my butt off. Gajeel, classy. Yeah, sure! He obviously considers himself to be more clever than he sometimes appears. And as brash as he and Natsu often are, they occasionally say smart things. Not often, but sometimes.<p>

Don't expect chapter 3 this fast, please. The speed of this was … unexpected.

Not really a horror writer – I tend to slant towards contemplative romance – so I hope this is going over okay. Please review and let me know!


	3. Return to Madness

When the Lights Go Out

Chapter 3

A Return to Madness

He was alone in the darkness a long time. At least it felt like a long time. Then he heard sound. He didn't _trust_ the sound anymore than he trusted the darkness – the darkness that he watched tear Wendy to pieces – but it was something. He oriented himself by it, trying to decide if he was still in the guild, or if it was him who had been transported and not the others.

The sound was moving. It was, he thought, the humming from earlier. When the enchantment first fell upon them.

He wasn't running into tables or the bar, and the room seemed bigger than before. It made him … gah, stupid word … _hopeful_. Maybe he was dead, not the others. For reasons he didn't feel like exploring at the moment, he preferred that.

The humming turned to singing, then to laughing, and it was his voice and Erza's voice and Levi's voice and a voice he was afraid to name and the voice of darkness.

* * *

><p>He was sitting at the bar. Eating. Well not eating because a chill was crawling slowly up his spine. Something wasn't quite right. His eyes scanned the area, trying not to make a big deal about it, and saw nothing alarming.<p>

Mirajane was laughing at something Bunny said, which Gajeel didn't get because Bunny wasn't funny.

Gi hi hi hi, he was so clever.

Moving on.

Natsu was on Bunny's far side, sucking down a fucking torch. It looked like absolute bullshit, but he guessed his dinner looked the same. Next to fireface was Juvia's annoying ice-prick. He still didn't get what was going on with that.

Speaking of Juvia, she was sitting at the table behind Gray being genuinely creepy. She looked like she wanted to eat him; to swallow him whole.

Pantherlily was chatting with Erza, and that bothered him a little, but it didn't have a damn thing to do with the feeling of unease that haunted him, raising the hair on his arms and shifting the bolts in his skin.

Then there was Levi. Face buried in a book – her resting state – and an unknown woman lingering at her side.

"What are you reading, dear?" Though the face was young, smooth, and unlined with age or experience, the woman's voice was ancient, textured, and dark. The body was a lie. Every nerve in his body recoiled at the sound of her voice as it echoed in his ears. It was – he suddenly realized – the first fucking sound he heard since he turned from his food. Before he even knew what he was doing he was off his barstool and in the old woman's space.

"Who the fuck are you, old hag?" Levi looked up at him, shock the only emotion in her eyes. The old woman in her construct of a body looked up at him, and her eyes were slithering cruelty.

"Do you truly not remember? Do you actually not know? Search your memories, Dark Son of the Dark Earth, and find your answers there. If your mind actually contains memories without the bookwhore. I searched and found very few of any worth."

He bristled. His eyes narrowed. But he didn't rise to the bait. Instead he said, "I was never the earth's son. The earth dragon wasn't my teacher. Who are you?"

"It was not to the dragons I referred."

"Who the bleeding fuck are you!" Gajeel roared, and finally he realized that nothing moved. No one reacted. The world was still. Frozen.

Then the woman was gone and only her voice remained. "I am the darkness."

And then the darkness fell on him.

* * *

><p>He remembered the emptiness. Remembered the enchantment. But he did not remember the woman being from his past. Was this the illusion, or was that? He wondered if the impatience and rage he felt was a product of the spell, but he thought wasn't. It was his. He had every reason to be angry.<p>

"What the fuck is the goddamn dark earth?" He literally roared into the void. His power gathered in his lungs and flew from his lips in an unseen vortex. "What is this shit, and WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?" His teeth cut into the air around him, but it didn't bleed.

He wanted it to bleed. He needed it to bleed. The killing rage was upon him, and a death needed to occur under the rough flesh of his hands. A pulse needed to stop. A breath stop. Life stop. He needed to hear the pain, smell the fear, devour the weakness in _something_.

His skin was hard, and his arms were blades. But he cut nothing; nothing.

'Goddammit,' he thought in the corners of his mind with what was left of his sanity.

"Gajeel?"

The voice was steady. The voice was calm. The voice was familiar. As was the scent. The heat. The pulse. The life. He knew this person. This woman.

His prey.

He turned to face the disembodied sound and launched himself at her. At last there would be red blood to light the darkness. Paint the night in the colors of life, and it would fill the stillness. And he would command the darkness.

The smoke rolled once more under his skin; he could feel it, and he didn't know what it sought. But he didn't care. He smelled metal, and a sword touched his scales. Bounced off. Her sword could not hurt him. Not him.

A second sword joined the first as they fought. Danced. In darkness. Other voices whispered encouragement in his ears, but she said nothing. Asked no questions. Made no declarations.

Scum. Trash. Waste of fucking space.

He wanted her dead. He would see her _dead_.

Well … maybe not see.

He felt his blade part her armor. From the level of his arm it was somewhere in her torso. From the movement against the blade, he suspected it was her arm. Maybe her side if her arm was raised. He smelled the thick perfume of the iron in her blood. He was grinning. The red of it was a powerful thing, and he could see it inside the hollow darkness.

Magic flooded his senses, and his blade was pushed back by new armor. He grinned. So the fight would continue.

"G-Gajeel?" the small, sweet voice did not shake him, but he was more aware of it than he was anything else in the black. Even the blood. Well, except maybe the humming. He suspected the humming was the old hag.

He heard one of the swords sing to him, in defiance of the blood loss. Then the second. But he wouldn't be taken in by a sword. Never again. He took it into himself, making it a part of him. Devoured it with his arms and hands. Consumed it directly into his blood and let it leach into his cells.

Using the hilt, he pulled the sword bitch to him. She put her steel foot and then steel fist in his gut, but he was steel too. What the fuck would that do? He dragged her hand up and put his teeth to her gauntlet. Ate it. Fucking tasty. Fantastic.

"Gajeel stop! Please!" the other voice was closer. Briefly he wondered how that one could see when he remained blind.

"The enchantment's made him sick Erza. Please don't kill him."

Pugh, like any stupid sword scum could kill _him. _Water and salt filled his nose. Tears. He growled and struggled to hold on to his rage. His mind was divided into two halves, the side trying to be free, and the side that consistently wished to feel the collapse of flesh and bone under the solid steel of his hands.

"I can fix it," came a whisper almost softer than air.

The light in her skin … no the light in her words. _Stillness_. _Calm_. They sank into his skin in the same way the sword had. Then she ripped pages from a book and threw them into the shadows.

'Ripped a book?' he could not move, but the rational, controlled part of his brain was getting stronger. Because of her words. Because he could see her. And because her actions just now were almost more powerful than her words. 'She ripped a _book?'_

Because she was _here, _and he wasn't alone in the shadows any longer.

Erza, for some reason, didn't count.

Pantherlily would make a big fucking deal about that, but he preferred to ignore it. Shit like that wasn't fucking relevant.

Her pen emerged from no where he could see. Characters he didn't recognize just fucking appeared and cut into other words that looked like no words he had ever seen. Not even when she destroyed Fried's runes. Not even when they had trained together.

The shadows cracked. Filled his his ears with tinny screams in the death of what lived in the shadow and silence.

But he was – he cringed – _glad_ with the quiet of the screams. Even with evil, he figured that Levi would be … uncomfortable with ending life. Even if that life was shadow. Even if that life had killed. She had forgiven him, after all.

She was too damn soft. But...

But …

That's what made her so amazing.

Compelling even.

That she could exist in a world so filled with absolute scum and not be … tainted by it. Lessened by it.

"Gajeel?" The concern shamed him.

"I'm okay, Shrimp." He felt Erza's glare boring into the back of his head. "Um. Yeah, thanks."

"What happened?" Erza stepped to his side in armor as dark as the night had been. "I feel like I've been here forever."

"Not that long," Levi answered. "You were gone only for a little while when I arrived, and I wasn't in the library more than an hour. And I don't feel like I've been here forever," she added. "I don't know what happened. Everyone shouldn't be gone. The rule on the number of people was very defined. Solid. Direct. There was no wiggle room there. More solid than the lack of light, which obviously I was able to break."

"Did you?" Gajeel's words were distant. "I've been hallucinating. I don't know if this is you. I've seen you both already, and that wasn't real."

"Hallucinating? For how long?" Erza turned her steady, unforgiving gaze on him.

"Don't know. I heard things from the start. But the real shit happened after you left, but before I saw Wendy killed and was separated from … the rest of them." He wanted to say 'the nuts', but Erza's gaze discouraged that sort of word choice. And he was the one hallucinating, so he wasn't exactly one to call people crazy.

"Wendy was killed?"

"Listen to my words, Bookworm, since words are so," he skipped 'fucking' because he remembered who was in the room with him, "important to you. I saw her killed. I didn't say she died."

"O-oh. Right. I'm sorry."

"Back to the point. How the hell do I know you two are actually you?"

"I am most certainly me," was Erza's unhelpful answer.

"I can't give you any hard evidence, but … well would you have known the magic I used to break the darkness? Would you have known the symbols? Would whoever is doing this have known my magic? How I use it?"

She had a point. He let it drop.

"Who in the world _is_ doing this, and why?"

"It's me," he grumbled, almost unwilling to admit it because he didn't understand. But he needed help. He needed help and Lily wasn't here with him. He'd have to settle for Salamander's leader and a tiny girl he'd only fought beside once. He might not trust them – he trusted almost no one – but he could respect their power.

"You are _not_ doing this." He managed not to take Levi's words as an insult.

"Not the doing, the why. It was in the hallucinations. Some woman told me I'd know why when I remembered," he shrugged, "but I don't remember her."

The women looked at one another and seemed to decide that discussion could be left aside for now.

Erza cleared her throat. "So did we move or did everyone else?"

"Us, obviously," he scoffed. He was more sure of that now than he was earlier. But maybe he shouldn't be so certain.

"I don't think so, Gajeel." Levi's tone was more humble, but her posture was more sure. "We can't be anywhere but within the enchantment. Neither can they. Like I said before, the number of people was solid, fixed. We're in an alternate level of the same physical space."

"What the bleeding shit does that mean?"

Erza frowned, "Are you aware how disgusting you sound?"

"Sure," his grin was sharp Her glare was steady. She did not sigh. She did not roll her eyes. She glared. His grin did not falter. They both turned their expressions on Levi, and she shook her head. Possibly in disgust. "Well?"

"It's a complex theory," obviously assuming they wouldn't get it, which was probably true. "You were both in Edolas -"

"So were you," he pointed out.

Sometimes Levi's glare was as good as Erza's. 'It must be some sort of girl gift,' he thought, 'along with tits and all that other shit.'

"You were both _aware_ and _human_ in Edolas," she amended. "The theory here is similar. Your experience with an alternate world proved the idea of plural worlds, or, rather, alternate or divergent paths of what might have once been a singular world."

"That sounds believable," Erza said.

"It sounds _what_ ? Are you serious?"

"Well, she sounds smart."

"She _is_ smart, but that doesn't mean that shit sounds _believable_. You'd have to fucking understand it to believe it."

Levi was ignoring them. But blushing. What was up with that?

"This is a version of the same thing. Someone, most likely the same someone who cast the enchantment, caused a divergence in our time and space. We exist, in some way, in the same place as our nakama. The same physical dimension – unlike Edolas, which was in a split dimension, but the same geographical location in its universe but, as you phrased it Gajeel, separated from the others.

"I suspect that Lu-chan could bridge the divide with her spirits if she knew about this. In fact, think of the spirit world as a bridge between alternate realities."

"How can you know it's a bridge?" was Erza's only question. He had dozens but wasn't able to find the right words to ask them.

"Because Lu-chan used her spirits in Edolas. If the spirit world was only connected to us and our world, she wouldn't have been able to do that."

That made more sense, but only a little. But the important question was, "Can you get us out?"

"I … I'm not sure I'm that strong. This person, whoever they are, is bending _reality_. I don't know how you even begin to do that and breaking an enchantment with no information is … hard."

"Well Erza and I sure as hell can't do it. And you're incredible with this shit. You own at this shit. Don't be such a whiner."

Levi was blushing again, and Erza had a sweet, un-Erza smile. Damn. He probably said something he shouldn't have. But what?

Bitches were hard to figure out.

"I'll … I'll try. But I don't know … the light might not hold if I mess with the rest of the enchantment. Let me know if your hallucinations come back. The enchantment might fight me."

"Will do, Bookworm, just get to it already."

* * *

><p>Without tables, she once again chose to kneel with the books she brought spread out on the floor before her. Ass in the air. In his head and with his eyes, he appreciated the empty room and the resulting position. It wasn't something he'd <em>ever<em> mention aloud, but it wasn't only her mind he found incredible.

He'd _never_ say it. NEVER. Lily'd jump on that, and the teasing would go on forever. Plus getting kicked by those two lovesick puppies that followed her around … ugh. Not that they would do any damage, but he fucking hated holding back in a fight, and he'd have to hold back. They weren't Erza. They weren't Natsu. They were weak, and if he no longer hated weakness like he had, it still wasn't worth his effort.

* * *

><p>Levi was fidgeting over her books, mumbling. "If ha-kana is the base and tsu is a texture … Rfan is … no wait; the accent. Rfaq? Lower language? Yes, it's a misdirection. But so obviously? Is the misdirection the true base? N is a pillar. Ma … second base layer. A form of the actual reality, not the divergence. Lng; high class slang? What does that … It is <em>not<em> a standard character in any of the three dialects!" She groaned. Groaned again. Lifted her glasses and pressed her fist into her eye. "I've never seen anything so complex! It has to be; I get that, but still."

The time dragged as they watched her, but she was obviously making some sort of progress.

"Dt and dng … not spacial. Emotive. What are they...? Yes! Yes. There. That's it. Ka, kap, kn."

He glanced at Erza, and she shrugged. Good to know he wasn't the only one in the dark.

The pen came out and the glasses came off. "Mai ra kai, chai ka ng … lngban!" Her voice rang out and her hand swept the air. "Reveal!"

The final word appeared as a shining mirror, and the room was instantly surrounded by the same sort of characters in her book and the papers she used to destroy the darkness. He and Erza could read none of it, but both soon discovered that – in addition to the walls, ceiling, and floors – they were touched by the same style of letters. He activated his iron scales, but the characters were still there.

"Ahhhh, I thought so," Levi's face and hands and stomach and legs also glowed with the words. "This is what I need to break. It only touched us." She grinned at him and he was caught by her expression. "Thank you, Gajeel. You were right. I can do this."

"Good," Erza nodded. "We need to get back to the others. If this is happening to us, it could be happening to the others as well."

"Then get to it, Shrimp."

"Yes!"

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Not much longer, but a bit, to make up for the short chapter 2. More Levi and some gore. Hope you all enjoyed! Thank you again (in general, I will also thank individually!) for all of your support! If you would please leave comments in your review of what you think, I would greatly appreciate it!<p>

Also: . for Levi and Gajeel during the Battle of Fairy tell arc. He's TOTALLY checking out her ass.

Also, also: check out my other G/L stories. (Shameless pimping.) I'm getting a few comments and PMs asking for plots and things I've already written about. So … yeah. Maybe have a look!


	4. Needles

When The Lights Go Out

Chapter 4

Needles

Levi'd been working for a while. They still weren't solid on time, but it seemed like awhile at least.

"Ai and bn. Ch and tz. Sh and ln." She was still mumbling, but he and Erza had stopped paying attention to her forever ago. It wasn't like they had a clue what the hell she was saying.

Erza was changing armors. Seeing if any of her weapons had an effect. The first one after the obsidian looked like the night sky and smelled like starfire. She didn't name the armor, but he guessed she was trying to duplicate the bridge the bunny chick was capable of accessing. Whatever it was she continued cycling through her arsenal, probably going from strongest to weakest, most magical to least, so with every change it was less likely she'd have any success.

Levi was the only option.

He didn't try to do a damn thing. The enchantment had a hold on him since the beginning, and he didn't want to draw its attention. Might screw with Levi's work. Might send him to another layer or whatever. He still didn't understand who the hag was or what the hell she wanted with him. He had no memory of her. But it _was_ him she was after. Erza and Levi got caught for some reason. But he was the only one who …

Wait.

Fuck.

No he wasn't. The little girl heard some of it. She hadn't felt it all, but she freaking heard the clicking, and felt the darkness in the same way he had. If Wendy wasn't the first one the enchantment took, she was the one it took the fucking hardest. The one it took to shake the fuck out of him.

Still … why take Erza and Levi? They had no hallucinations.

"She took me because she wants something from me," now he was mumbling. Bookworm was rubbing off on him. "She took Erza because … Erza's the strongest."

"The Master's the strongest," Erza insisted, clearly listening to his mumbles.

"Too strong to take maybe. Too strong to hold. The old bastard's fucking crazy."

"And Juvia? Natsu? Gray? Mira?"

"I don't know, but you're still the strongest," much as he fucking hated to admit it. He moved on. "Took Wendy because … she was next to me? She's a dragonslayer? She can heal? Because taking the kid would piss me the fuck off?" Any one of them seemed possible.

"I thought you said she was dead."

"Goddammit you and the Bookworm don't listen! I said I SAW her killed. I've been fucking hallucinating for however the fuck long this has been going on! She did NOT die!"

"Ah." She considered it. "But if it's dragonslayers or the strong ones, I have to repeat, why not Natsu?"

He snarled. "Beats the bleeding hellfire out of me. Maybe the dragons have shit to do with it; the hag mentioned something about not caring about the dragons. Maybe it was that stupid muffler he always wears. It protects him or some pussy crap like that, doesn't it?" He was tired of talking about Salamander. "Took Levi because she was a threat. Because she could screw the damn spell."

"Yes, I agree with Levi, but with Wendy. If she was taken, she would be here, would she not?"

"Maybe she _is_ here. Maybe she's just on a different level or layer or what-the-crap-ever. Not like I have a bleeding clue how this works!"

"Okay," Levi said, standing, finally acknowledging them. "I think we're done here. The test will be the actual thing, but I'm ready to give it a try if you both are."

"No," and the sound of his voice caused the tiny girl he never wanted to scare again to take an involuntary step back. "If m … if the girl is here we have to look for her. She's … you know … one of us or shit, I don't know."

Erza had that sweet smile on again. "You're right. We shouldn't leave – Levi shouldn't leave – before we make sure we're the only ones here." She could have teased him, but she didn't.

Levi nodded with eyes of stone. "Yes. The rest of the building is still in darkness. Please be careful, Gajeel. If you feel odd. If you sense anything, tell me, and I'll do what I can to break it, but I will need a lot of energy to open the bridge I wrote into the enchantment. I don't want to use it up on the rest of the shadows."

"Understood," was his answer.

* * *

><p>They left through a door Gajeel had somehow not noticed. Levi had to have come through it, but they were still in the darkness then, and he was still trapped by the rage.<p>

The door led into the shadows. His body tensed expecting danger. Expecting needles. Humming. Clicking. _Something_. But there was nothing; nothing but the faint glow coming from Levi's skin. From his skin. From Erza's skin.

The characters remained.

And they freaked him the hell out.

He let the women call. He'd gotten the lesser thing. He wanted her found, to stay and look for her. The most important thing was actually finding her.

"Wendy?"

"Wendy!"

They called in different ways; in ways that showed their personalities. Levi was unsure, quieter; Erza was confident and loud.

Gajeel wasn't all that sure himself, now. If the little girl was in the room, she would have called out an answer. But the only sound came from the two women.

Blooding, shitting crap.

She was _here_. He felt her in the air that filled his lungs. She was his kind. She was so damn young. It wasn't that she was weak; it was that this place was fucking scary. That she was scared before – shit he was even worried before – and this was worse.

And it wasn't that she didn't understand suffering. She had suffered loss. And loss. And loss again. It was that he couldn't fucking stand for her to suffer more.

She was his _kind_, but not _him_. Not even Natsu. She wasn't as lost. Or as rudely stubborn. Bitter. Strong but not rigid. They had to find her; he might deserve this torture, but she didn't.

A new door. A new room. The old darkness. The sameness pissed him off.

Then …

Shit. It was so far or so soft, but those were whimpers.

A trap?

He smelled tears. Were they hers? Was he hallucinating again?

"I hear her," he left off 'I think'; he wouldn't be less certain that Erza.

"Really?" Where his words and voice were neutral, Levi was giddy.

"Good. Where?" Trust Erza to get straight to the point. Expected, but … it pleased him that there would be no goddamn waiting around debating whether or not they should go.

"The next room? You said this is the same; the same as our guild."

"Yes," Levi's voice was breathy. Surprised. "The same as _our_ guild."

Shit. He'd messed up again. Said the wrong thing. He usually called it _the_ guild. Whatever. Roll over it. What's said is said. More important shit. "The stairs are that way," he told them like they were too stupid to remember. He kinda hoped the tone was enough to make them back off of the crazy kitten eyes they were giving him. Freaked him out.

"Right. The stairs. This really is our guild!"

"What the hell you saying, Bookworm? 'Really'? You acted like all that bullshit about physical same place talk was just naturally true! Now you act all surprised?"

"We-ll, yes, I suppose ..."

"You _suppose?_"

"Shouldn't be going to get Wendy?" Erza was looking between the two of them with a cocky smirk on her face. He only let her get away with it because, yeah, they had to get Wendy.

Across the room, onto the stairs, still calling her name. The sound of her fear was clearer now, but she wasn't on the stairs. Second floor. Why would she go to the second floor?

He heard no humming.

No clicking.

She was trying to find a safe place.

Goddammit! His stomach was tight with some … some feeling he couldn't quite name. It wasn't fear, not that he had all that much experience with fear, of course … but he couldn't call it anything else. He took the stairs in two great leaps. Not waiting for the other two. Not caring much if they got left behind; they'd catch up.

Because it wasn't only the tears. There was blood in the air. Blood in his nose. Blood in his lungs. And it smelled like her.

* * *

><p>The characters no longer freaked him out because the characters brought light into the place of complete shadow that held her. At first he couldn't see her, the light of the words was pale compared to the power of the shadow, but when he did ...<p>

She had retreated to what should have been – in the alternate reality or true reality or what_ever_ Levi was saying – the Master's rooms. They were empty. Nothing to hide under. She had crawled into a corner and put her hands over her face. As if the darkness inside her hands was better than the darkness outside her body.

And it fucking was. He got that.

She was covered in lumps. At first he wanted to kill something, thinking it was another hallucination and he was going to be forced to watch her skin split again and see her rot. But there was the blood, and there hadn't been blood before. Only smoke without flame and rot without death.

The scent that filled the room confirmed her life. Screwed the fears of hallucinations. This was her. This was the little girl. This was the sky dragonslayer.

This was Wendy.

"Girl," he'd never known his voice was capable of being gruff and soft all at once, but for her trembling, he managed it.

"Wendy!" Erza and Levi called together, rushing forward.

The little girl pushed back into the corner she was curled against as if she could somehow become a part of it. To stay away from them. He elongated his arm, throwing a ram of hard metal before their running forms.

"Stay the fuck away. She's scared." His snarl made their eyes widen.

"O-okay."

"Right. Of course."

He turned back to the little girl and didn't smile. His smiles weren't comforting, and she probably needed something less than terrifying at the moment. "Kid, we can get out of here. The Bookworm has a way back." Again he left out 'I think', since that wasn't helpful.

Her the fingers of her hands curled into fists over her eyes. Then fell to rest on her knees. He could see the streaks of tears on her cheeks, but she wasn't crying now. Her eyes were hard. "Gajeel?" she asked, all wary and unforgiving.

Oh yeah. She'd been hallucinating too.

"The old hag come to you too?" he asked before he even thought about what he was saying.

"No. No." Her face was shuttered, but her nostrils were flaring. "Is it really you?" she asked.

"Honest to shit, I don't even fucking know right now. I mean, this whole place is absolute bullshit."

She stumbled to her feet, using the wall to support her insignificant weight. He didn't step forward to help her. She was trembling still, and her eyes were still hard. She wasn't even blinking, as blinking would weaken her defense. His eyes took in the discoloration on her pale, usually unblemished skin.

The deep gash across her calf. The slight swelling in her left cheek. The disheveled hair.

The lack of shoes and the bloody foot prints she left as she took a step in his direction. Then another. And another. It was still a surprise, even though he knew it was going to happen from her body language, when she fell against him. Face pressed to his stomach. Fingers clinging to his clothes.

"You can get us out of here?" she mumbled into the fabric.

"Levi can," there was no questioning his tone. He believed the Bookworm had the smarts and the power to do what she said. If she said she could get them out, then she could get them out.

"Gajeel …" she whispered looking up at him. Trapping him with her eyes. Her mouth twitched, drawing his eyes away from the hard gaze. "Release your power so I can know you're a dragonslayer. That can't be faked."

"You can't smell it on me?" Now his eyes were narrowing. "And you saw the ram. That can't be faked either."

"Please," the hardness in her eyes cracked. Such a thin layer of necessary courage hiding a deep pool of fear. "Please. You don't … I have to be sure."

"Whatever," he muttered before gathering his magic and projecting it outside of his skin.

She smiled up at him. The fear in her eyes rippled. Turning to … happiness? No. No.

Fuck.

Greed.

The hands in his tunic stretched around him. Too long. Impossibly long. Coiling around his body. Around his back. Up to his face. Touching his cheekbones.

He felt weak. He almost fell to his knees. He had felt this before. The bitch was trying to steal his magic. Gajeel pulled all of his remaining energy back into body and let it coat the iron of his bones. She had taken less than half, but still …

"Do you remember yet?" the old hag's voice coming from the little girl's mouth was _wrong_. In more ways then he could ever say. The look in her eyes, the look that had nothing to do with the body around them, made him vow to kill the old woman for doing this to the girl he thought of as almost a little sister.

"What the fuck are you doing here, you old bitch? And what the hell have you done with the kid?"

"What indeed. Do you believe this is her?" She released him. Stepped back. But he did not move. The old woman made the girl's hands touch her face. They traced her mouth and nose. Her eyes.

Gajeel growled and took a step forward. He _didn't_ know if it was actually her, but that wouldn't stop him from doing something.

A small finger pointed at him. Then was laid across her lips as if telling him to be quiet. Then it rose; the finger slid up her face and pushed into the open, unconcerned, almost … almost … evil gaze of her right eye.

At first he didn't get it, but then the finger kept pushing. And pushing and the eye compressed. A second finger was added, and Gajeel yelled.

It was then he realized he was alone again.

No Erza.

No Levi.

No Levi … no way out.

"What do you want?" He made his voice tough. Stubborn. Low. Dangerous. But the words told the truth. He was losing. He couldn't let her hurt the girl. If that was even her body. He didn't know. He didn't know if she was alive somewhere. If this was her. If she'd ever actually been split open by the shadows.

He knew nothing and could be sure of _nothing._

The fingers slipped into the corners of the eye, and like it was nothing at all, popped it out. The eye still faced forward as she held it between her two small … damp … fingers. It was still connected to her brain. It still saw.

It still shown with the greed. With the evil.

And when she laughed and ripped it out to toss on the floor, the laugh was not Wendy's laugh. The laugh was pure, hollow darkness. The characters on his skin flickered and died, and all he could see was her; he could not see anything in the black but Wendy's body and the eye on the floor. Looking up at him.

Glittering in the not light.

* * *

><p>Was the darkness inhibiting his movement, or was he moving without being able to tell? Since he couldn't see himself, and he was not really sure if he could feel himself either, he was unable to answer that question.<p>

The fake Wendy, or the possessed Wendy, was gone. She had left soon after everything went dark. He wondered, almost obsessively, if her eye was still on the ground watching him. He felt like it was, and he didn't like it one bit.

It was happening again, the darkness made physical, and he couldn't move. It wrapped around his wrists and his ankles and his waste and his throat. And he no longer thought he couldn't move; he knew he could not move.

Something sharp touched his cheek. A needle, like before. He laughed, but there was no sound. Seriously, like a fucking needle would bother him. Did the hag not see his face? She might not know all the ones unseen because of his clothes, but his body could stand way more than that tiny prick.

It was like the monster around him could read his mind. Probably it wasn't. Probably it was more that he wasn't screaming as the needles pierced his skin. And probably it knew about the bolts that decorated his body and came to the smart conclusion.

That it was time to try something better. Something that might actually hurt him.

Levi's screams filled the darkness.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: First of all I'd like to thank everyone for reviewing and for fave-ing and for adding me to your alerts! It makes me feel awesome and gives me a reason to write. To continue writing. To write fast, and edit fast, and update fast!<p>

It's going to be a bit busy, so again don't expect daily or every other day updates. But I will work hard, to keep your support and hopefully to live up to your praise. Thank you all so much.


	5. Revenge

When The Lights Go Out

Chapter 5

Revenge

Every muscle in his body tensed. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't real. That the hag was imitating Levi like she imitated the kid. But the scream filled his bodiless ears. There was no way it couldn't effect him. He'd heard the same thing before.

When he was the one doing that fucking shit to her. When he was the one making her scream.

His breathing (if he _was_ breathing) sped up; sweat gathered in his armpits and back; it rolled over the studs on his face. He could feel it now. Feel his arms and legs, and he realized something.

That 'sweat' was blood from a shallow head wound. From the night-black spikes around his arms. From a fight he couldn't remember.

But he remembered the position. He could never forget. The lack of solid support under his feet. The pain in his stretched arms. The bruising he felt on his stomach.

Crucified.

"This is what she wanted for you. To feel as she felt," said the hag. A light, which started as a pinpoint, grew far away. He recognized the hair. The legs. The swing of her hips that was probably not even on purpose. Probably. He had a bet with himself about that back in reality. Wherever that was. He recognized almost all of her. But not the expression on her face.

Levi would never look at anyone with such hate. Even if they deserved it. He knew. She had never looked at him that way.

"Oh she has somehow learned to forgive you and move away from her own pain. But even her recent memories show her crying in her bed in the deepest recesses of starless nights. And buried deep, deep within her mind is a seed of pure, shining hatred. Merciless and beautiful. Just waiting to boil to the surface."

Levi … the not-Levi, it couldn't be her dammit! … walked to him. Put up one of her tiny, perfect hands. He could feel her magic. It felt like her, and that alone would have driven to his knees if the bolts through his arms would let him.

She wrote a word, sharp and glinting in the light of her skin, and he read it. He read it and felt his pupils dilate to the point he knew there would be no red left over. It looked like she meant to fix that, though.

"Pain." It was her voice. No hint of the hag who had to be directing her.

"Shit," he whispered because he couldn't speak any louder. Her eyes were crystal. Bright. Hard. He swallowed, licked his lips, but his mouth was bone dry. If only the restraints were metal he could free himself, but they were a part of the shadow.

The word cut into him, and his skin split under its power. And the shadows coiled around his arms slithered into each wound. Burrowing under skin and wrapping around organs. He grit his teeth. He did not scream. His chin dropped to his chest in an attempt to stay strong.

The eye was on the ground; illuminated by the light of the not-Levi. It watched him. Watched him as he gasped for breath. Watched him as he could no longer stop his moans. Joy flashed in its depths.

He held on for as long as he could, much longer than he thought he could. Longer than probably anyone else, he had his pride after all, and pride was important. But pride was also stupid. It made the torture last longer than it would if he had let go of his glare and his tension earlier. He couldn't. He couldn't and still be him. And … and he kinda hoped she'd stop before it got that far. She didn't. 'Pain' cut into him. Crushed him. And he didn't make any sound louder than a moan for a long, long time.

But even he could only handle much – Wendy, Levi, the pain; fuck the pain – he had reached his limit.

His screams tore at the darkness. But it did not fall.

Levi was smiling as the black and shadow took him.

* * *

><p>He came to with the hag's voice in the air; her breath touched his neck. Goose bumps raised the studs on his arms. He could feel them now. He could feel everything now. His nerves were practically on fucking fire with the sensitivity.<p>

They wanted it that way; Levi and the hag. He narrowed his gaze and struggled to growl when the pain lessened … though it only lessened a little. A very, very fucking little. He tried to roar, but he was almost drained of power. The whirlwind was weak, and his shrapnel disappeared when it touched shadow.

Levi stood watching. The goddamn eye watched him. The sticky sweetness of the woman's breath touched his ear and filled his nostrils.

"Bleeding shits," he croaked out, "when I get free-"

"When you get free what?" Levi's once sweet voice cut into him. "My nakama freed me. You have no nakama here. Erza has been returned to her home, and I have destroyed the spell that caged them. They do not search for you." That mouth smirked, and the tiny bitch laughed, "They barely think of you."

"Lily would," he sneered at what he knew was a shitty lie. "Juvia would." He spoke no other names. Only two; he could only be sure of two.

"Would they?" she asked with her Bookworm voice. With the certainty defined by her intelligence. "Pantherlily was suddenly freed of your childish and often violent need for him, and is now at the side of the only woman he ever loved." That expression did _not_ belong on her face. That sly scorn … "The only _person_ he ever loved.

"And Juvia … do you honestly think she would make much of an effort with Gray there to comfort her in her grief?"

"They would search for you," he was quiet with the heavy weight of questions he had thought of himself. Why would they come for him?

"And they do. They work hard to look for me while they have forgotten you. They love me. They hate and fear you."

She made so damn much sense. But he hid the way it cut at him. Her words were her power, and she was strong, but he would not fall a second time.

She said a word, and he flinched. 'Vanish' appeared in front of him, and for the first time he felt true fear.

But the word did not touch him. It stayed in the black between their bodies. And the black faded to gray around it.

What Gajeel first took to be ghosts filled the space around them. Then color, washed out but still color, defined the ghosts. And he could no longer call them that.

He watched as Natsu and Gray, both grinning those idiot grins, took shots at each other. Erza was at a table alone, cleaning a sword. Lily was no where in sight. The old man reached out to slap Cana's ass as Gildartz, beside him, attempted a glare, but killed the effect by laughing.

The Bunny Girl … Lucy. Her name, he'd never actually forgotten any of their names, was Lucy. She sat by Levi's teammates mouthing what he assumed was words of comfort. They were both sobbing. They looked fucking awful. They were the only ones.

Juvia walked in, and rain didn't follow.

He couldn't believe it was real. He was … fuck … he was _better_ now. And if he wasn't the most important or good guy in the guild, he'd showed over and over and _over_ again that he was one of them. That he tried to be one of them. They didn't understand how hard it was … the Master did some, but the old bastard was one of the ones _making _it harder by sending him out on damned-impossible missions. And Levi seemed to get it; she walked to him instead of running from him.

He'd saved her, fought for her, and she'd done the same for him.

She was the one he hurt the most. And fucking _honestly_ hadn't the lightening jackass and his trio of idiots done worse? At least no better.

He hurt Levi. Luxus hurt _everyone_, even risking the whole town. And wasn't the betrayal worse because he was also a Fairy Tail mage?

Gajeel had been part of a rival guild. Following the orders of his guild master. Sure he enjoyed it, but they were his enemies then, and he loved a good fight. Fairy Tail gave him that when Phantom Lord attacked. One of them alone took the full blast of their cannon. One of them alone defeated all the Phantom Lord sub-branches. They took out the Element 4.

Not that he'd ever let any of the bastards know, but he hadn't been so impressed since he was with his dragon. Even having a thought like that made him scoff at his own stupid weakness.

But when Makarov offered, he immediately wanted to join. Another thing he would tell no one. He wasn't a fucking pansy like the rest of them, and he sure as hell wasn't going to give them something that they might get the wrong idea from.

"You see? They're happy without you."

"Most of them look pretty fucking happy without _you_ too."

She laughed that girly, evil laugh and flashed him a smile that was pure Levi. His heart made of steel got stuck in his throat. Almost choking him in it's unyielding callousness.

"And you see Fried and Bixlow are absent. They are attempting to trace the enchantment to its root and free me. A hopeless task," she shrugged, "but still they search."

"Wendy."

"You watched her die, and you still ask after her?"

"_Watched. Saw. _Those things don't make it any more true than this shit. And I _saw _herhere after she supposedly died." The anger made his voice sharp, and the sharp voice made him cough. And the cough made blood spill from his mouth.

"Her form is mine," the voice whispered to him. Still unseen. "Her body is with me. But surely even someone as thick skulled as you understand that a person is more than a body. I have removed her memories, her emotions, her intelligence and independence. Most of her strength. I have replaced them with selfishness, memories of pain and abuse and loneliness unlike any she faced when she was Fairy Tail's Wendy. I took away her name, her brain, her power, and I alone own her body." A barely heard chuckle, "What is that if not dead?"

"Not fucking true; that's what it is. None of this shit is." With the decrease in pain and the focus on their voices, he was starting to feel better. Think faster. "I'll ask again, and it might be worth your life to fucking answer this time; who are you? What in the hell do you want?"

"Do you realize how much your ignorance makes me want to see you hurt?"

"Then correct my ignorance dammit or shuddup!"

"No. Not when causing you anguish is so much more satisfying. Dark Son of the Dark Earth, you will realize soon enough that you belong in this place. That you deserve nothing, and that this is a gift. I am occasionally merciful." He thought she sounded savage and not merciful in the bloody least.

The not-Levi erased the word with a wave of her hand. The gray became black once more. And she was all he could see.

"Gajeel," she said his name with that achingly familiar smile, and none of it was mercy. Unless the meaning of mercy had recently shifted to mean torture.

He was tattered, bleeding, bruised, and swollen with the coiling shadows. She didn't seem to notice any of it; she didn't make a sound about the combination of dried and still tacky blood when she put a hand on his chest, cracking open a wound. He winced. It wasn't the pain he felt.

He tiltd his head down again and all he could see was that wild, blue hair. No headband. For a moment – only a moment – he wanted to bury his fingers in the color and texture. To press his face into the mass of blue. Replace the scent of blood with the smell of her.

But she had no smell in this place, and his hands were still bound by his crime, his guilt, the darkness, and the enchantment.

Her lips touched the place between his collarbones. 'She must be on her toes,' was his first moronic thought, 'because she's not tall enough to...'

"No," growled," moving past the feel of her into the truth of their surroundings. "No," he repeated, but she didn't listen. That was normal. She never fucking listened when she should.

Her lips and hands moved slowly. Almost lazily. Removing the few scraps of fabric that were still with him after the torture. Hands and lips moved again, and this time his 'no' sounded more like begging. A plea. Like failure and helplessness.

Her hard eyes of crystal and cold looked up at him, and the smile was still on her face. The pink of her lips drew his gaze even though he wanted to look away. He couldn't. Fuck. Fuck. _Fuck_. He forced his eyes closed and turned his head away. He did what he could to move his body back away from her, but his movement was still severely limited.

"What is it?" the hag's voice had move. It now seemed to come from somewhere over Levi's shoulder. "I know your mind. I've read the depth of your memories. You want this one. Every time you see her you want her. As I said; I can be merciful. And it works both ways; she wants it too.

"You once touched her bare flesh in agony. You put your hands on the smooth skin of her stomach when she was trembling with fear. You put hands on her when she doubted her strength and was drowning in the feeling of her own weakness.

"Now she will touch you in fear. In agony. She will put hands on your skin, your body, when you are weaker than you have ever been before."

His chest rose and fell more and more rapidly. Goddamn. Shit. What the fuck was he supposed to do? Eyes still turned away and closed tight. His sharp teeth bit into the swollen flesh of his lip, and he tasted blood. Iron. Not that it would help. Not with the power this hag had; even more after she leached almost everything from him.

"Levi stop," and he _was_ begging now. Was saying her name. The hag was a fucking prophet. He had been touched, flesh to flesh in pain. In fear. And now in weakness. "You have to fucking stop, Levi. You have to. Shit. Please. Please fucking get away from me!"

That head haloed by blue turned up to look at his face, but he only watched with his peripheral vision. He wouldn't let her catch him with those eyes again. One hand slid up his torso. The other slipped over his hip to touch his back and pull his hair. _No_.

"I can bring back the littlest dragonslayer if you'd prefer."

He went as still and unmovable as the hardest metals. "What did you say?" the words were hardly clear. If he hadn't said them he wouldn't have a clue that the words _were_ words. They were a roar. A growl. A threat.

"If I read you correctly, and I'm sure I do, you tend to lean towards the cuter side of attractive."

"Wendy is-"

"I told you I took her name. She is Howl, the call of the wind when it looks to kill, and she will do what I tell her to. I'm offering you a choice, Dark Son. The child or the young woman you have watched for a year?"

"You fucking old, sick bitch! Let them the fuck go, and I'll do anything, do you understand? Fucking _anything_. I'll fucking destroy continents; just let them go."

Levi pressed up against him, body flush with his. "Why would you want me to leave." She took on tones of disappointed hurt, and he almost couldn't stand it. "I know you want me. I – wanted to touch you for so long," her cheeks were flushed. They stood out against the stark white of the light which came from her. "But I wasn't sure … this is the best way. Now you can't stop me. You can't take the want from me, and I know you want me too." The sound of her voice, the feel of her body, and if he knew she were her and doing this shit herself … fuck yes, he'd admit everything. Every goddamned thing he'd been too much of a chicken shit to say, even to Lily.

But she wasn't her. He didn't know who the hell she was, but she wasn't Levi. She wasn't the amazing bookworm who managed to solve the really complicated problems in a more calm way than he or Erza or Natsu ever managed. She wasn't the shrimp that he could carry around like she was weightless.

She was nothing but weight now. The weight of shit he'd done wrong. To her. To everyone ever. She pressed on him, and he thought he'd die of the weight.

And she could solve nothing as she was. This thing the hag had created was made to destroy and nothing else. Destroy him and everything else she came across.

No. This was not her. It was like the hag said; she was more than a body. Especially her. If Levi wasn't Bookworm anymore, then she wasn't Levi. Even if that was her body. He wouldn't kill her; he couldn't kill her. He didn't think he could even begin to try, even if she were trying to kill him. But he wouldn't let her do this to him either. Let her do something that would cause her to … to hate him again. To be terrified of him. He couldn't kill her, but he couldn't let her get away with this.

Never during the time she slashed him into ribbons of torn skin and dark-red blood did he think of killing her. Only of somehow turning her back into the woman h-

Shit no. Stop the thought there. No time for that here, especially if the old bitch could read him as easily as she claimed.

"Stop. Don't do this. Not … not like … you have to _stop_!" but his words still didn't pierce the control the hag had wrapped around her. She reached up to grab his shoulders and pulled him down. How she got the strength to do something like that when he couldn't move his body against the shadow at all …

She kissed him.

He struggled against her, but only so much.

Her mouth was warm. Soft.

The hand on his back slid up under his hair to grab his neck. Her lips brushed his jaw. Up the curve of his ear. Fog rolled over eyes that could see nothing but her anyway. If his hands were unbound he wasn't sure he could keep himself from reaching for her. He had his eyes closed wanting it to be real, but not fucking wanting it to be here. In whatever this plane of reality was with the goddamn hell bitch looking on from wherever her disembodied voice was now. And the eye of a 12 year old girl watching from where it fell on the floor.

He turned his head away from her mouth. "Stop it," the rumble of his voice would have sent the first Levi he knew crawling away from him. The Levi he spent the most time with would have put her hands on her hips and told him she'd do whatever she pleased.

This Levi breathed words in his ear; words so soft even he almost missed them.

"Show nothing or we die. Fake it for me. I'll free you."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Um yeah. I'm kinda really fond of this chapter. It has something to do with me being a horrible person, but still. I like it! I hope that you liked it as well. Please leave a review, and also thank you to the anonymous reviewers. I can't PM you to thank you, so might as well do it here!<p> 


	6. The Storm that Howls in the Night

When The Lights Go Out

Chapter 6

The Storm that Howls in the Night

What. The. Bleeding. Shit.

Seriously. Did he fucking miss something? Because he felt like he was missing something.

Her hands still moved over his skin. Touched each bolt that ran through his body. Though she … uh, she missed a few. He clinched his jaw wondering if she'd go looking for those. Damn he hoped not; he had to figure out what he missed.

The hag hadn't responded to her words. Did that mean they were too quiet, even for the old bitch? That she was following orders and _trying_ to fuck with him? Or did it mean she meant them. That she would free him. Get them out. Save them.

Damn. _Damn_. If anyone could do it. If anyone could pull that shit off, it would be her.

But how could he trust that? She wouldn't … She wouldn't have been _capable_ of doing the things she'd done. Even to keep up a show for the darkness, the hag, and the eye that watched. Maybe the vanish. Maybe the emotional. Maybe she made a fantasy of their guild. But not the pain. Never the pain.

The Levi he knew. Any of the versions of the Levi he'd known. She couldn't do that. Even to keep up the ruse. She wasn't capable of flaying him while smiling and laughing.

Fuck he'd never even done that, and he had been a horrible shit before. Laugh afterwords, why not? The shits had already been taken care of, and he was gone. He would only scowl while he was seriously screwing them.

But he could hope. All he fucking had anymore was the goddamn hope and the fear that he was allowing something unforgivable to happen.

Her lips were moving now. She was behind him and her mouth moved in a different way from before. Like she was talking. Like when she worked out a spell. When she was destroying darkness and barriers. But then it could be any spell. He knew he hadn't seen all of them. And she could _make_ barriers too.

Shit he didn't like thinking this hard. He wanted to punch something so much. Something like the old hag or maybe the six legged serpents that filled his b-

What?

His wounds … his wounds were empty. There were still wounds, and some of them still wept blood. But the blood was slow and almost dry.

He'd trust her. That was his decision. No more thinking.

She told him to fake it, but that was suddenly an incredibly difficult thing for him to do. Heat rushed from his feet to everywhere he could feel her. Everywhere he'd ever felt her. This was _her_. The real her.

Goddamn.

If it had been hard to tell his body no before, it was doubly hard now. He kept his eyes closed and his head turned away. He said 'please' and somehow managed to get 'stop' to come out soon after the please. But it wasn't easy.

He had to find that place in his memories when he was too damn guilty to think of her. To talk to her. And then way too fucking guilty to touch her. It was only after Edolas and Lily that he felt enough apart of things to take that step.

He had a lot of memories where he knew looking was as much as he could ever take. As much as he could ever get.

It didn't matter if he'd been wrong, when he felt right now; though, still guilty, and he couldn't really actually believe that this was possible. But he thought she was real.

He was deceiving two whole guilds. He had trouble sometimes believing he was a man capable of lying, since he was someone who felt more comfortable saying the awful and less awful things he thought without giving a shit of the consequences. But lying was something he was already doing.

And she was a part of that deception. He lied to her too by saying nothing.

So he managed to grit his teeth and continued to pull himself away from her as much as he could. His hands balled into fists, as much movement as he was allowed, and that would look enough like struggle. And he supposed it was struggle.

He wanted his hands on her.

He was so caught up in his fight with himself that he almost missed how she wrapped a calf around his thigh and pulled him back down to her. The soft warmth of her lips against his were eclipsed by their movement; so similar to the movement against his skin before.

"Be ready to run," she said, even quieter than those words spoken directly into his ear.

Her lips touched each eyelid and lingered on his forehead. The glow of her body increased, and it penetrated his closed eyes so he imagined he could see every curve of her.

"Freedom," was the word he heard as coated his face and moved the damp hair stuck to him.

Light flashed around her, around him and every place she touched. Every place she'd kissed him, spoke on his skin, light bloomed. The letters and words were different from before. They were hers. He recognized a few from the other spells he'd seen her work in the past.

He ripped his hands free, and felt a floor under his feet. She grabbed his hand, turned him away from the eye that had never moved and never stopped watching. "Go." she demanded. Clutching at the hand she held and pulling him to what he hoped was an exit.

Light broke out behind and in front of them. Brighter than the light on them. Brighter than a light in the dark. Brighter than the sun. His eyes ached with it, and his ears rebelled against the old hag's shriek as they ran through the doorway and hit the stairs, running as quickly as either of them could manage.

The serpent shadows lingered in the fading brightness as the stairs ended and they entered the next room, but they didn't land on them. Did not attempt to take them. Did not touch them, knowing instinctively that they would be killed, destroyed., made into nothing if they reached any further into the darkness that lingered around Levi's light.

The real Levi.

It felt like forever, reaching the other door. It felt like an endless run as the bright began to descend further into shadow. It got closer and closer and closer.

But it never touched him. It never touched her.

Her skin still glowed.

* * *

><p>Seriously, when the fuck were they going to make it to the other room. "What the shit is going on, Shrimp."<p>

"She had me, and ..."

"Not that," he growled exasperated. "That can come later. What's up with this room being so damn big. It's not this big in our world."

"Oh," her voice was a weak whisper. "It's like the opposite of a barrier. It's opened up this layer to us, and stretched it beyond what we know. Like I said before, she's capable of bending reality. Altering the physics. Defying the laws that should be infallible."

"Can you make it stop?" He hated to ask; she was gasping. If he weren't in such hellashish shape he would have carried her. But at the moment they ran at the same speed. And he wasn't slowing so she could keep up.

"No. Not if I want to open the gate. I'm _tired_ Gajeel. I still have to get you through. Then I have to find the others and pull them through also."

"Like _hell_. You are not staying in this hell place on your own. I'll stay and we'll both find the sword woman and the little girl." He didn't mention that Wendy might be lost to them. That even Erza might be lost. "You told me you sent them back; was that true?"

"I … I did, yes. For Erza. Wendy … Wendy will be harder."

He stared at her briefly and huffed. "Don't lie to me, Bookworm. You're a horrible liar. You didn't send either of them fucking anywhere. If they were ever here, they're still here."

"Please," her whisper was only slightly louder than the spell she used to free him. "Please let me get you somewhere safe. She wants you so much. Only you. I can't keep you here. I can't let you stay. Please … for … for me. Please go."

"The hell I will. You look like you're going to pass out and sleep for a damn year. What if you do that after I'm gone. We'll never get you back."

"Fried -"

"Can't do shit or we'd be out already. This is on you, and I'm not running away and leaving you here to fight on your own."

Her eyes closed and he could feel the flutter of her eyelashes as if he was touching her face. But he wasn't. He almost stopped in his shock. The fuck?

"I'll change your mind. But I'm too tired now."

And she was. He could tell by the limp fall of her arm under his hand. Being wounded didn't stop him this time; he lifted her, still moving, and kept running. Though he did grunt once when her hand hit a wound that hadn't closed quite yet.

Her legs were trembling. He could felt her lungs sucking in air and letting go faster than they should. "Take larger breaths. Calm down. Sleep if you can. Who knows how fucking long this is going to continue."

With her face pressed to his still bare chest and her finger gently tracing over the wound she had disturbed before, tears rolled down his skin. Maybe that's why she was breathing so rapidly. The sensation of eyelashes moving against him was real now.

"How could I sleep? After that. After what I did to you, while … I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I could see, but when I was hurting you … I … I couldn't stop it. The anger, the hate … what I did … I'm-"

His arms tightened around her, "Forget about it. It's not like I won't heal. Some shit like this won't kill me, you should know that by now. And if you weren't you, why would it even matter?"

"Because it _does_ matter! It does!" Voice stronger now in her desperation. "Don't you … don't you care? She lied, she lied, over and over she lied. I swear, I swear on whatever you believe, I don't hate you. I never hated you. I … I never wanted to do things like that. You know … tha-that I was afraid once, but I never … She changed it. She … I don't know … reprogrammed my mind. But I could have … I did … I could have stopped it earlier! I stopped it … I did stop it, so I should have stopped it _before!_"

The crying was sobbing now. And her breath was double the speed. If that even possible. The heartbeat he could feel on the side of her knee was beating as hard and fast as her breathing.

"When did you …?" his hands were tight against her. Unable to do anything more against the certainty of her wrongdoing. They were still in the same endless room behind the great hall in the guild. It was understood that they needed to return the room they started in – the great hall itself.

"Wh-when you said 'no'. It woke me. I was confused but not confused. I could remember what I … didn't want … didn't mean to … Gajeel I am so sorry. I -"

"Don't worry about it Shrimp. Let's just get the hell out of this shit hole. You can make things up to me later by buying me every drink at left at the bar." She glanced at him. "I'm going to need it." because she was sorry she touched him. Because somehow he was going to have to forget the warmth of her, and that would mean being too shitfaced to stand.

He actually heard her lips curl in response. He _heard _it. "Mmm, maybe."

* * *

><p>It took them what felt like more than forever – or at least the far side of forever – to pass the door between the 'small' room and the large one. The main one. The one where hopefully the rest of the guild was still in, in some other layer of the world. Or life. Or what the hell ever. He still didn't understand that shit.<p>

He'd have her explain it after they made it back and everyone was safe.

Probably still not get it, though.

He was grinning. Like a maniac, he was sure. So fucking beyond glad to have made it here. There was no telling how long they'd been absent from the room, but Levi's runes still shown against the walls. The scent of her power filled the place, making _this_ room conform to its true dimensions. And the light was still on here.

"Whado we do now?"

Her eyes jerked open. He thought she might be sleeping despite her claim that it was impossible. She shuddered with a large yawn before squirming in his arms. He wished she wouldn't. He really freaking wished she wouldn't.

"Can you set me down?"

He made a gruff sound that stood for some type of agreement and put her on the ground with maybe a little more care than he should have considering his current emotional instability.

Her eyes narrowed, and she swept the air like she was brushing away a spiderweb. Glowing words followed the path of her hand. She nodded, a sharp movement. Turned to him. Her expression was more serious than he'd ever seen from her.

The time she asked him to fight for the guild was close.

"I can send you back now."

"No." The one word was as sharp as her nod if not sharper. As sharp as his blade.

"I don't actually need your permission. The spell is under my control, not yours."

"You do need my _permission_ if you give a shit about surviving your own return. If you make me leave while you run around this fucking awful place alone, I'll kill the fuck out of you when you get back. _If_ you get back." His glower was more like the shape of his old face. The shape she had seen once before.

This time she laughed at him. High and chiming like a clear bell. She was a weird woman, that was for sure. "You wouldn't."

"I damn well would. What the hell do you know?"

"Quite a bit," she smirked. "Almost everything, I think."

"When did you get a swollen ego, Shrimp?"

"I'd tell you to guess," her laughing was quieter this time. More chuckling than laughing. "But I think you're too dense to figure it out."

"The hell you say?" he would have growled, but he was kinda shocked by the teasing insult.

She swept a hand at him like she had done to the air before. Words flowed to him, and he covered his body in iron and steel and a layer of dragonslayer magic. "I said no."

"And I said I don't care."

"You did not."

"Well I meant that I don't care."

"Well _I_ don't give a flying shit what you said or what you meant; I'm not leaving you."

As her mouth snapped shut, and her eyes widened, he was filling his mind with curses. 'Shit I did it again … let my goddamn, fucking stupid mouth get ahead of my brain.'

She bit her lip and spoke in a softer voice. She didn't look him in the eyes. "I'm serious, Gajeel. She'll come for you again. I really don't want that; I can find Erza on my own. And if Wendy is actually Wendy … I should be able to tell. If she is herself in any way, I'll box her up and bring her back too. I promise I will. It will be harder for me to do these things if I have to … worry … you know ..." she gulped and the eyes flicked up to his face, "if I have to protect you too."

"Say what?" _Protect_ him? Protect _him? _He couldn't say which of those two words were more offensive.

"Well you are the target. And … um … you've already … been taken? … a few times. I'll remind you," some of her courage returned with her lecturing voice, and her spine stiffened, "that it was me who freed you back there."

She had a point, but no way in hell was he going to freaking admit it. _Protect him_. What absolute bs.

"And if you have to fight?"

"I can fight."

"Sure you can, Shrimp."

"I _can_! Don't underestimate me!" She was indignant. At least that's what he thought she was. He wasn't entirely sure about the meaning of that word. "I'm the captain of my team, _and_ was a part of the s-class exams. Where _you_ were unconscious for most of it, if I remember correctly. And I do."

"Yeah? Well I remember that shit too. I remember I was the one who actually knocked those stupid bastards out. And captain of those two morons doesn't exactly say shit about your power."

"Ugh! You … you _jerk_."

"Most of the time, yeah."

They were glaring at each other – and he was hella surprised she could handle his glare, that wouldn't have been the case six months earlier – when he heard the faintest of sounds coming from the shadows in the endless room. He threw a hand up in the direction of her mouth, which was almost lowering his damn hand as short as she was, and looked to the door. Nothing, but Levi shut up about sending him away.

Small blessings.

At the moment they needed larger ones.

They watched as Wendy, or Howl, or whoever the fuck she was, walked with confidence through the doorway. She was instantly visible in Levi's light. Her eyes...

Eye.

He clinched his jaw. Levi gasped and reached out a hand to grab his elbow. "Gajeel..." she breathed. He said nothing. There was nothing to be said. Then empty socket and the smile of something far older and more than slightly insane said all they needed to know.

"Get behind me."

"No, I..."

"Goddamn it Levi; get your fucking ass behind me!" The little girl. The little sky dragon was lifting her arms in a movement he recognized. They all roared differently, the three of them. He was glad that he'd put up his scales already. He barely had the time to move the bookworm behind him.

It wouldn't be enough protection.

"Storm wyrm's scream!"

What the fuck?

Her wind was black and cut with flashes of lightening. It rumbled with some fucking massive power. He was suddenly regretting those scales. Fuck this was going to hurt.

But he was glad Lily wasn't there to see it. Cat would pass clean out after having a heart attack.

Then it hit him. He had drawn breath to roar back, but he hadn't been fast enough. She drew her power faster than when she had been Wendy. It was like she was 10 years older. More advanced. And shit, she was going to be an ass ton more powerful than either him or Salamander when she hit their age.

All that flashing, buzzing light hit him with more force than he had felt since Luxus. It seared the flesh of his open wounds … stopped the bleeding though, he was able to be grateful for something as he gasped for breath after the storm died.

"Gajeel!" Levi tried to come forward, but he held out an arm and pushed her back.

"No. I'm fine." Not actually true. And there was no way she'd believe him while he was bent over choking on a cough.

"But you _aren't_. Dammit!" That made him turn to her. She wasn't one to curse. "Break!" she shuttered while pushing a hand and curling her fingers.

"No!" he choked again, thinking the word was intended for Wendy, and he didn't wan- …

But then the lights went out, and Levi was pulling his hair. Leading him somewhere.

'Well, shit." He thought with what was almost a grin. 'Looks like she was right. Again. Bitch just saved us.'

* * *

><p>Author's Note: So... the first part was a bit sexy wasn't it? The last part not so much. What has Wendy become? What can they do to stop the little girl they think of as their nakama? Who the bleeding fuck is the old hag? Why does she want Gajeel? Only I know the answers to these questions. Because I'm awesome.<p>

I usually pm reviewers, but it seems someone's being Anonymous … so thank you person who doesn't leave your name. I appreciate your support. Which goes for those of you who leave your name also, but again, I tend to pm ya'll.


	7. Black Hole in the Storm

When the Lights Go Out

Chapter 7

Black Hole in the Storm

She kept pulling his hair until she ran him straight into a wall. Two walls, in fact, because it was a damn corner. And it wasn't like he was injured or nothin'. It wasn't like he was smoking a bit and still cut the fuck up.

_More_ cut up after that. He was going to collapse soon, and he needed very much for that not to happen. She might be able to help them escape, but there was no way she could keep up with that Wendy. Hell he wasn't sure _he_ could take her down. Kill her maybe, but killing her wasn't the goal. Making her not not-Wendy was the goal.

And that shit was limiting.

He could see nothing in the darkness Levi allowed to retake the room, but he could smell her in front of him, and hear her muttering. Doing something magical. There was the smallest bit of light that flashed across the floor and up the air, almost too fast to see. And in that brief light he saw her move from her knees to sit properly.

"We'll be safe here," she said in a normal voice.

"What did you do?"

"Barrier spell like Fried's. To take it down, I had to learn it. I've been practicing. And the rules here are pretty simple. No female under the age of 16 or, for safety's sake, over the age of 19 can cross. No one not possessing solid script magic can cross. Which means only a male with solid script magic, or a woman from 16-18 with solid script magic can move through the barrier."

"And if the hag is just playing at being a woman?"

"Well, she's probably still older than 19. And though she has powerful rune magic or is powerful but limited to barriers, she's not a solid script mage. At least that I've seen thus far. I didn't put an age restriction on the male side because … well the barrier stopped you at over 80. I could try for under 25, but I'm still not sure what the barrier would do with your age. I tried to make it as open for you as I could. I can remove the solid script rule easily, the age restriction would take me a moment or two longer, and that might be an important moment."

True. But that also meant she could leave at anytime, and he couldn't. He still remembered her earlier words where she said she would box Wendy up. Now it was him in the box. Sneaky. Clever as hell, but damn sneaky.

"Can you turn on the lights?"

"I don't think we should risk it. The rules on sound and entry are relatively easy. Light in this place, though, is so much harder. It took a lot of power to turn on the lights and destroy the shadow the last time I did it, and even more the first. I need to conserve energy."

"So, can you hold this with no energy?"

"I'm not actually doing anything with it now. It's a solid rule until I break it … or someone else stronger does."

"Do we stay here forever?"

"No, of course not, but we _will_ stay until you get some of your strength back. I can tell that hit took a lot out of you, and, she sounded a bit guilty, "what I did too."

"I told you to forget about that shit."

"In this case, regardless of your orders, it does matter right now. It's slowing you down, and we can't really ignore that with Wendy the way she is."

"Do you think that crazy bitch out there is our Wendy?" If he didn't think Levi could willingly torture someone, he _really_ didn't think the kid was capable of 1) being that damn powerful and 2) turning that power on people she considered friends. "Could she be some sort of illusion?"

He could hear her smile. Fucking hear it. How did that work? "I think she's a bit strong for a construct, but she's also not using her usual spells. _But_ they're close enough to her standard powers that it could be a warping like what was done to me."

"So in other words, you don't have a damn clue."

"I would bet on the warping. It would be much easier than creating a construct with powers so similar to Wendy's own. And being so powerful, at that. I'd be willing to bet, as well, that she can't heal like she is now."

"Why is she so different than you? You used the same word magic you always use."

"But I've _never_ used anything like that before. And _never_ used it in that way!" he had offended her. Whatever. She'd get over it. Maybe. He never really understood women, especially not this one. They forgive the unforgivable, like the shit he pulled, and then get fucking hung up on stupid crap like this.

He didn't mean she had tortured before, just that it was a part of the same magic.

"Here," she said, and the smell of good iron filled his lungs. Good iron and her. He took the metal and started eating. It would distract him, and it would help him get his strength back. She'd started to glow again, but didn't seem worried about that light. She whispered words that he could hear, "Bandages" and "Ointment." She let them hover, unmoving, beside her. She whispered again, a hand stretched in his direction.

"Pain-"

He winced. How could he not? It was instinctive.

"-killer." Her head drooped. "I'm sorry. I didn't think."

"Whatever. It's no big deal anyway."

"Sure," she didn't believe him. And since she was right, he didn't really expect her too. He just wanted them both to move on so they could get the others and get the shit out of the place.

Done with the iron, he placed a hand on the word made of ointment, while she unraveled the bandage word. They worked quickly, and he was covered in the word, that felt like soft cotton, in only a few minutes.

"Water." And he used the word to take the pills. That was a damn useful gift she had there. If for no other reason than it could provide him with a limitless supply of food. If he could fucking manifest food out of thin air like that …

Damn that would kick ass.

"I want to sleep for a little while, okay?" she leaned against the wall next to him. "Only a little while. Please wake me if anything happens. I know we can't tell time here, but not longer than you feel is an hour."

How the hell was he supposed to feel an hour?

She dropped off to dreamland faster than he expected. More tired than he thought. He wasn't sure what took more out of her, but she'd obviously been drained almost dry. Tch, he wasn't paying enough attention to her – something he believed impossible – if he was, he could have stopped her from doing so much. It wasn't like he needed the bandages and all that shit. The iron was great, but she could have rested first.

He sat in silence beside her as she gave off pale light. The sounds of nothing were oppressive. He found himself missing her voice. Any voice really, but more hers than any others. It hadn't been that long since he let go of her. Since they'd (_he'd)_ stopped running. But he wanted to …

Dammit.

He had to think of something else. Anything else. It was always hard to be with her, but being trapped in a fucking impassable box didn't make shit any easier.

Eventually she woke. And about time, he was about to cross the thin line of madness if he didn't hear something besides her breathing. And he was about to pass the even thinner line of something he'd regret if she didn't wake the fuck up so she could tell him no. Or at least back away enough that it became less of a fucking issue.

"How long was I asleep? I feel better than if I woke after only an hour."

"Who the hell knows? I can't tell time in this place." In fact he'd counted each of her heartbeats, which he could hear easily with no other sound to overpower it, and an hour had passed some time ago. Sixty heartbeats a minute, sixty minutes an hour … he'd gone through the cycle of minutes at least six times. He thought he probably lost count at some point around time four.

She looked at him, glare more pronounced with the shadows cast by her glowing skin – at least these shadows didn't coil and move – knowing he was lying to her. But she sighed and forgave him quickly. Probably understanding that she was useless if she couldn't even stand. She needed the sleep, so he gave it to her.

Putting a hand on the corner of the two walls and another next to his arm, she stood. She stretched. He watched with the distant fascination of someone who had been arguing with his conscious for the past lots of hours.

"So I know you won't go home. You're very serious about that -"

"Hell yes I am, and for good reason! The little girl -"

"Yes, yes. Anyway, I won't send you back. I won't stay here alone."

Satisfied he nodded, about damn time. "Great."

"But see, not staying here alone doesn't mean the two of us have to be together the whole time, does it. If the rules are, can't leave and won't leave you alone in this place. You never set a distance. As long as you're here," she waved a hand indicating the box, and he was about to fucking attack her himself. He saw this shit coming. "Still here in my barrier, you're safe. And right now that's the most important thing to me."

"You can't keep me in here, you annoying little -"

She cut him off again. "But I can. You've come across barrier spells before. Been held back by them. Mine isn't any different from that. And you can't crack them, so you're effectively stuck here until I get back."

"What if I need to get out because you're gone?"

"If I'm _gone,_" she put a heavy emphasis on the last word, "the barrier will break. Most spells die with the creator. This one is no different."

What? _Die_. "And if I need to get the fuck out to keep you from fucking dying? You'll feel like a real stupid chit then won't you? Better for me to come with you and -"

"I've made my decision," if she cut him off again, he'd punch her in the face. Feelings be dammed. "You will stay; I will go. It's the only way this will happen. I'm sorry, but I'm not letting you chose. I've seen you hurt before. For me. By me." She closed her eyes for a brief second, and it was like she hadn't slept at all, they were so heavy. "I don't want to see that again."

"And have you somehow got the stupid idea that I'm okay with seeing _you_ hurt? Because it's not true. Get the over it and let me out of here." He attempted to rise because he thought he could overpower her and get her to change her mind that way, but he couldn't move. It was like his back was attached to the wall.

His shoulders.

His arms down to his elbows.

His forearms and hands to the floor.

His legs to the floor.

That fucking bitch. He might not kill her, but he would have to do something awful as hell to pay her back.

"I'm sorry," she said as she watched him – again – struggle against bindings. And she didn't fucking mean what she said either. If she was actually sorry she wouldn't be such a bitch. "It will hold until I'm back, or I release it." Her eyes moved to catch his, and then away as if afraid. She damn well should be. "Or, you know, if I die. Like with the barrier."

"Don't even say that! Are you out of your fucking mind? You're supposed to be the smart one here! Let me go," he roared without the magic because he didn't want to hurt her that badly. But it was a close thing.

"I am sorry."

"Hell no you're not. I am going to beat the everloving shit out of you when you get back; do you hear me! If you die, I will fucking find you, find a way to bring you back to life again, _just_ so I can beat the everloving shit out of you! Twice! For leaving and then again for dying!"

She laughed at him, arms wrapped around her stomach like he was the funniest thing she'd ever seen in her life. "No you won't." She bent at the waist and kissed him as he was preparing to yell more threats and curses at her.

Instead he held his breath and kept his eyes wide open. This side of shocked completely mindless.

"You won't because I know now that some part of you likes it." The corner of her mouth twitched up. Her tongue darted out of her mouth to touch her lips. And she disappeared out of the barrier without letting him say anything in response.

What. The. Fuck.

* * *

><p>He'd stayed dumb and speechless for longer than he probably would have if he were somewhere that distracted him from what had happened. If he was in the guild and a fight broke out, for instance. Or if Lily were around to talk him out of his stupor. Or if there was a loud explosion.<p>

Since none of those things happened, he didn't say anything for a long time. And when he _did_ start saying things, all of the things he said were variations on berating the blue haired, annoying, frustrating, tough, sweet, attractive …

Shit, he'd gotten off track.

If her leaving had made him a little worried and a lot pissed off before, well it was worse now. Now he was still a lot pissed off and about a thousand times more worried. If … that … goddamn it! She wasn't doing this because she _could_ do it. She was doing it from some stupid ass feeling that made her need to _protect_ him.

Why in the seventeen layers of the purple hell was she so stupid!

And people called him obstinate. Well, they didn't use that word most of the time. Pig-headed got used a lot. Bullheaded. Bloody minded. Why did so many of those involve the head?

Want bullheaded? She was a perfect freaking example. Not so much bloody minded as single minded. Annoying. She drove him absolutely nuts. He couldn't be the only one, but she got away with it because she was so fucking cute.

And he was getting off topic again.

With a few more grumbles he released the tension in his muscles and settled in for a long wait. Wasn't like he could do a damn thing now. She'd made bloody sure of that. He would have to worry and wait. And he'd probably said it a lot in his life, but he fucking hated waiting.

00000000000

If it wasn't for the light, he wouldn't have known.

He didn't know if it would have been better in the dark, but it was bad enough with the magic.

Wendy's hands were pressed to the wall of the barrier, and her eye looked on him with pure malice. "I found you," the hag's voice spoke through her again. "You are alone; it looks like the tiny girl you love left you with protections." The grin on Wendy's face was nasty. "But she still left you, didn't she?"

He kept his mouth shut tight. He wouldn't say anything. Not to argue her words. Not to give Levi away.

"Well. Of course you wouldn't speak. And it wouldn't matter. I don't care what you have to say, and neither did she, I imagine. But it doesn't come to anything, does it, Dark Son? She wanders now in _my_ domain. Alone. Without help. Without protections. After defying me. All alone."

Wendy's body pressed closer to the barrier. So that every part of her body touched it. Light and words danced across the invisible wall like ripples in a lake.

"Such a strong spell. Such strong magic. I have become quite fond of her. I shall take her from you as I have taken this child. Then you will be truly alone in this place, and I will take you as I please."

He still said nothing, but it was hard to keep his mouth shut. He teeth ground and his jaw was clenched tight. His eyebrows ached from the tension of his scowl. But he wouldn't give the hell bitch the satisfaction.

The smile again. Wendy's body turned, tracing a finger on the barrier and leaving a flow of words he could not read in her wake. It was the eyeless socket that faced him as she left.

After she was out of his sight, he started shaking. It was completely involuntary. Part of it, he was ashamed to admit, was fear. More was worry for Levi. And even more than that was his overwhelming need and desire to get the fuck out.

He needed to be with her in case something with wrong. In case she was found. And he would need her too; even if he couldn't be anything more than a shield against her power.

Darkness and more than darkness beat and caressed the barrier in turns. He might not have known if the words didn't flash to tell him of an attempt at intrusion.

All his efforts at relaxation fell flat. He fought and screamed and struggled and cursed everything he could think of to curse. Starting at Levi and the hag and still going when he got to trees and grass. Not that it helped. It didn't even make him feel better. But he couldn't stop the anger and worry bursting from his gut and ripping at his vocal cords.

At the moment cursing was all he could do. He'd never felt so goddamn useless and weak every in his life. And he didn't appreciate the feeling. He would _disembowel_ the tiny bookworm when she returned. She'd more than earned it.

* * *

><p>When the barrier vanished and the bindings freed him, he didn't take off running. He sat starring at his hands, pointlessly, in the dark.<p>

"Levi?" he whispered, hoping she was the one who let the barrier go. That she freed him willingly.

That she wasn't dead.

"Goddamn it Levi, answer me."

Silence.

"Levi?"

* * *

><p>Author's notes: Yeah, that's right. Take that. With a missing Erza, a crazy possessed Wendy, and a dead Levi, what will happen to Gajeel.<p>

Tune in next time.

An thanks again to the Anon reviewer. To the rest of you: check your pm's as always! Love you peeps! Goodfreakingnight.


	8. Time

When the Lights Go Out

Chapter 8

Time

He was glad to stand up. Glad to run. He didn't have to think when he was running. Not really. And he couldn't think. If he thought, he couldn't act. And he needed to act. But he would _not_ fucking remember why. Not while he was running. Not when, eventually, he started fighting.

And not when he was killing every goddamn thing that crossed his path.

He wouldn't think about why.

No.

No.

* * *

><p>Still with the running. The old bitch had done that space extension thing. He still didn't get it. He'd have to ask …<p>

No.

No.

No.

Shit, it wasn't working anymore.

It was almost if he could see that distinctive blue hair running in front of him. Like he was chasing her. Like she was right in front of him, expecting him to catch up.

But he had no idea in hell where he was. Or where he was going. He needed to find her, but he was running blind in more than one way. Panic was a new emotion for him. Confidence, anger, worry, fear, happiness, determination, anger again. He was sure there were others in there, he just couldn't remember. Or wanted to forget. The two he wouldn't let himself think of at the moment.

All things beginning with 'L' were struck from his mind. Otherwise he'd go mad. And madness wouldn't help him in this place. So again he wiped his mind and thought of nothing but his feet hitting the ground. His mouth drawing air.

But for some reason he felt panic.

Probably just a side effect of running increasing his heart rate.

* * *

><p>He hit a wall. Not he <em>found<em> a wall, but he actually _hit_ a wall. It hurt like fucking hell. He might have twisted a wrist, which was a pansyass sort of injury. Who the hell twists a wrist? Not him, that's for sure. Except he had, and thought it was complete bullshit.

One of his bandages unwound, but he wasn't going to think about his bandages either. He didn't have anymore bandages; it wasn't like he could just ma-

Well, shit.

He busied himself with trying to find a door.

* * *

><p>What in the fucking world or not world or level or what the fuck ever was going on here? He'd been searching for what he was certain had to be a year and a half, and still he found no door. Every room in the guild had doors! They had to have doors or you couldn't fucking get in them! And this WAS another version of the guild.<p>

So again what in the fucking world … scratch that … what in the fucking _hell_ was going on here.

* * *

><p>He made it back to where he first met up with Erza. And … some other person. He knew because there was one word, one character still glowing on the wall. It stopped him dead in his tracks. It wasn't … he didn't recognize it, so it had to be one of the hag's words.<p>

Could _it_ be a door?

He'd never been the sort to actually plan. And he didn't consider the option where that word would kill on contact. He touched it and everything went black.

Gi hi hi hi, damn he was clever. Or stupid. Everything was already black.

But his head felt funny for a second. And he couldn't think of anything.

Not just her.

* * *

><p>He fell out of nothing to hit half on the hard floor and half on a hard chair. It didn't help that the face part of him hit the floor and the truly sensitive parts of him hit the corner of the chair. His mind went fuzzy again, but he recognized this fuzzy.<p>

Damn dick-killing chair.

He stopped breathing. He gasped for breath. And finally noticed there was light here. And sound.

Crying. Screaming.

Had he ended up in actual hell? Seemed like actual hell would kick him in the nuts straight off. Seemed like a hellish thing to do.

Millions of hands touched him. Arms circled his body. Some of the arms were small and soft. With heads that said nothing. And cold noses.

He struggled against them, blinded by light after what felt like a long time without. Then he heard his name. Over and over and over. Said by the weeping. Said with laughter.

He was home.

He'd never been more upset and angry about anything in his life.

He could have found her if he had more time. Could have saved her. Could have brought her back too.

* * *

><p>He did not cry or any shit like that. For one, this was beyond the point where crying would help. For two it was a girly thing to do.<p>

And the others said he was in shock.

One of the others was Erza.

So she had been telling the truth. She had sent her back.

He looked up at Fried. The green-haired enchanter. "You have to get me back there. You have to get me back."

The jackass made some unsure noises and said he couldn't. Of course he couldn't. He wasn't as good as he made himself out to be. She had been creative. She could do shit on the fly. He had to have days and months to set up his fancy barriers. Other than that he could only use his regular spells.

Useless.

No one said her name. Or the girl's. He had to ask. After he saw Erza, he had to ask.

"Gajeel," his Master said, "Erza came back to us after being gone for two weeks and two days. You have been gone for a month and a half. By your attitude, I assume … I assume Levi and Wendy are still there..."

"Yeah," he answered with what wasn't necessarily a lie. "Bookworm." Because he could not say her real name. Not now. "She forced me out. I didn't want to go, but she said I was useless there. So she boxed me up then forced me out." He made it sound as if she was still alive. As if he had just seen her. As if he hadn't spent a month or so searching.

"She can do that?" someone asked. He thought it was the green-haired guy, but he could barely see in the bright.

"Yeah. And she does it pretty damn well."

"What did she do exactly?"

Li – As if he knew the actual spells. As if he understood a fucking thing that came out of her mouth half the time. Ugn. "What the fuck do I know what she did. There was a barrier. I couldn't get out. She went away. Then the barrier freed me, and there was a word. I touched it; I'm here."

"Where is Wendy? I was told you found her." God, that fucking know-it-all voice coming from the floor. Her cat. He'd forgotten about her somehow. Of course she'd be concerned. Erza must have told them. But he couldn't say all of the truth. Just like – shit – he couldn't say all of the truth about … about the other one.

"Still there I guess. Still trapped."

"Why only you three, then? And why did Levi send you back without sending Wendy too?"

The name made him want to roar.

"Yeah," he was so fucking tired. He just wanted to sleep for a year. But more than that he wanted to go back. Go back for them. Both of them. Because Wendy wasn't here, so that other Wendy, that not-Wendy _was_ the real Wendy. And she was fucked.

He wanted to back and tear the darkness. Rip it to fucking shreds and make the shadows scream. The fucking old woman had done enough. He was tired of it. Fucking exhausted with he bullshit. His face must have mirrored his thoughts because more than a few people stepped away. The others looked concerned.

"We found her. Then we lost her, I guess. That place was so fucked. It was hell. Or worse than hell, who the shit knows. It's not like I've ever seen actual hell, but that place was close enough to make no damn difference.

"The four of us were in the same place for a moment. Then we were separated. I was still with the girl for what felt to me like a moment. Then she was fucking removed. Or I was. I never really understood what the shit was going on."

"Levi didn't explain it too you more?" Erza's question was direct. Erza's question had her name.

"No." His answer was sharp. Others stepped away from him.

"When was the last time you saw them?" The Master again. His face lined with more concern than Gajeel had ever seen on anyone.

"Time..." he put a hand to his face. The one still covered in bandages. The bandages made by -

No.

"Time was different there. We ran forever. We ate only once... I ate only once. She slept only once. Passed out from drain once. For us it wasn't the same. But … a month and a half …" those words were for him. For his thoughts. For his questions. "We ran for forever. I hurt for forever. She hurt for forever. She slept only six hours. I counted. It was six hours. I know it was. She built the barrier in a second. The door in a second. The bridge in … the bridge …"

He jumped at the bunny girl who was as close to him as the Master. As close as the female cat. As close as Salamander.

"You can get me back."

"W-what?"

"She said that the bridge was like your spirits. That you could build a bridge. She was building a bridge. You can send me back." He was growling more with every word. "You _will_ send me back."

"But people can't move through the spirit world," her voice trembled and her eyes were full of unshed tears.

"The fuck?"

"Gajeel," that was the demon barmaid, "you need rest. You're injured. You've been through a lot. You need your wounds tended to, and then you need to sleep."

"You don't fucking understand! This is my fault. It was after me." He turned to glare at the hazy blob that was Erza. "Didn't you tell them? Didn't fucking tell them? It wants me! And she threw me back like shit. To _protect _me. And now the little … fuck! … she's in there all alone!"

"Wendy's there too." That was the female cat again. "They're together, not alone."

He looked away. "I told you. Wendy's separated. They're both alone." Not necessarily untrue. If she was … if she was dead. If she was dead … his heart stopped for two whole beats. He counted the absence of his own and compared it with the sound of hers. What did she sound like now? With her heart still.

"You really need to sleep," the barmaid was repeating herself. "I'll take you..."

"No. I'm staying here. I'm not going anywhere. The little girl might come soon. The hag might come. I need to be here … I need to be here when she arrives." To be there so he could tell the difference. So he could make sure she was his Wendy, and not the monster the old bitch had made of her.

The storm wyrm. What ever the fuck that was.

He took the seat he had fallen on, and turned in it to face the air he had come through. His legs open wide. His neck leaning on the back of the chair. His arms crossed. He watched.

As the hag had watched.

As the eye watched.

Unblinking

Missing nothing.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: First of all, I'd like you to notice that, aside from the few slip ups that piss Gajeel off and he usually notices and corrects, he DOESN"T think or say a word beginning with an "L". That was a little more difficult that one might expect. You can't use little or like or leaped or lunged lie or light, or any of that.<p>

Also, Yeah it's a shorter chapter. Some people are going to whine: why didn't you write more? Please update faster! Even though I'm loading these things like every other day. Sometimes even faster than that! But I don't care? You know why I don't care? Because fuck you, that's why.

Hahahaha, j/k j/k. This was a super depressing chapter I thought. But at the same time, Gajeel's really stubborn. I couldn't see him just giving up. This really goes to how his character acts during the flashback of Makarov inviting him to join FT. The fact that he was hanging out all depressed looking on his old guild's ruins. That he was all grumpy when offered a place to go. But still took Makarov's hand anyway. Like he'd been waiting for someone all along.

I mean crap, that happened at some point during the hella long Erza arc. Sure, I doubt it was months and months, but it was at least a little while. They had to get to the resort, play at the resort, get kidnapped. Make it to the creepy island, go through the crazy shit that happened there, and then travel back when they were injured out of their minds! Probably took a few days at least. Even if it was three (day to the resort, day at the resort, night at the island, day traveling home … which is bullshit) that's still two and at least a 1/3 of a day longer than the current S Class Exam arc, which is like 42 chapters and going for a SINGLE FREAKING DAY.

God the notes are getting longer than the chapter. Anyhow, thanks to everyone especially those who review; you'll get a happy note in your inbox from me. 3

Also, to the Anon reviewer, thank you again! Also if you're the same Anon, which you seemed to be, who reviewed "To Heal A Burn" thank you for that as well! I got the idea from a M fic in this fandom, and thought to do another because there are people who don't read M and can't access what is such a good idea. It doesn't really surprise me on Inception, since there seems to be a billion males and only 2 females in the whole damn thing. I loved the movie, but I tend to stick with manga fanfics!


	9. Bridge with No Stars, Door with No Heart

Beginning note: So, this is beyond lame, but I swear to you I cried writing part of this chapter. Not like sobbed or anything wussy like that, but my eyes teared a bit and one or two drops rolled down my cheeks. What I'm saying is you MIGHT want a tissue handy if you're a sap like me. If you're not, then don't bother. It affected me more, probably, because I was writing it and I'm really close to this story and these characters now. It does get less teary with every edit reading. Moving on:

When the Lights Go Out

Chapter 9

A Bridge with No Stars; A Door with No Heart

He watched for a long time. But it didn't feel like forever. He'd felt forever, and nothing else would feel the same. Nothing else could match that feeling. Because of that experience he sat with a patience others were impressed with and expected he would give up any day.

The idea he had of the spirit world fell flat. She couldn't call them into an alternate dimension without being there herself. She called them to her in Edolas, not away to Earthland for a reason. Some exceptions were made when they opened their own gates, but apparently that too was limited to their own realm.

With seemingly no way out they had given up. They spoke words of hope when they were in the range of his hearing. Told him that they were sure the two of them would come home soon, but their words were empty. The cat … Charle … she was the only one that might believe.

Even her two idiot partners were sure they lost her. The cried every once in a while – he never cried – but for them, she was gone. Even as he sat and waited and pretended to believe, they had given up. He never told them they were right. Never told them he was wrong.

He would sit until he died. Or until the hag came for him. If he believed in anything, he believed she would come. If she'd ever really wanted him, and it seemed to him at the time that she did.

So the old woman would come, and then he'd have the answers he needed. She'd bring the fake Wendy, that Howl, to fight him because he'd decided she couldn't on her own. Hallucinations. Fear. Brief blackouts. Those she could do. But she never attacked him directly. She used the girl for that. And the other he still would not put a name to.

He might know, but he didn't want to know. He decided to believe instead.

* * *

><p>Mirajane brought him food. Lily provided him with company. He was surprised, but so did Happy and Lucy. Charle took watch with him any time she wasn't sleeping. Lily took watch when he was. It was the only way he'd sleep. If Lily was there. Lily was the one he trusted. Sometimes others sat with Lily who were too … scared? Nervous? To sit with him. The two idiots. (Who still occasionally cried. He still never cried. Just sat with his arms crossed and a glare that dared anyone to say shit to him.) Cana. Laki. Macao. Gray and Elfman. Sometimes Fried and Bixlow. He suspected that the enchanter was trying to access the door without him to interfere.<p>

Master Makarov and Natsu would watch with either of them.

He knew all of their names. He no longer even pretended that he didn't.

Only Charle and Natsu seemed to actually watch. Everyone else was trying to help him in some way. Provide fucking _comfort_. Or keep him sane. Or some of both.

Natsu was hopelessly naïve, and the cat saw the girl as her sister. Her best friend.

Lily didn't believe either. He knew that because Lily was the only one with the balls to tell him to stop. To move on. But when he said no, Lily was also the only one to really stay with him. To do the job right. Because Lily was _his_ best friend. And they both knew it.

It had been a month.

* * *

><p>A month later and it was only him, Lily, and Charle watching. Fuck the rest of them. They told him that they'd stay if they could, but they had to do some work. They sometimes mouthed shitty untruths and platitudes. And at other times carefully berated him – gently – for giving up his life. For nothing more than hope.<p>

The Master told him, in no uncertain terms, that he needed to start the process of moving on. And in a le – less … it was a safe word … it was okay … in a less direct way, that he had a job to do. That no one else could do it. And that he needed to get back to it before he wasted all the progress he had made before he was taken.

He responded in even more certain terms that the old man could fuck off. And fuck his stupid, creepy as shit son too. Someone else could do it, or he could just get the fuck of his high horse and have the bastard killed. It wasn't li … okay … like it would be the first time they'd worked to take down a dark guild. So Raven Tail was slightly bigger than some of the others. Who the fuck cared? It was run by an insecure cunt with daddy issues. Who was dumb enough to want to murder his only son for _money_, when that same son would be far more useful to him as an enemy against Fairy Tail.

Makarov didn't take that so well. But he also didn't lecture him a second time.

Lily took off every once in a while to take jobs. To keep him fed. He suspected that Happy and Charle helped and possibly donated money to the cause of keeping him alive while he slowly became an unmoving part of the chair and table.

Sort of like Cana was with that damn bar stool. Sometimes, late at night, she would start a one-sided conversation with him while in a mildly-drunken haze. It still managed to awe him that she could drink all day, only get the slightest bit tipsy, and then come back the next day, do the same thing, and never suffer a hangover. He wondered briefly if she used some sort of spell.

He felt that his life was one big hangover.

And the second month passed.

* * *

><p>While those who had somehow managed to hang on to hope the last two months were now abandoning that hope every day, his hope only grew. He tried to explain it to the others, but they were either fucking stupid shits, or they thought he was crazy. Some of them were both.<p>

And they might be right on the crazy part.

He only talked to Lily anymore.

And only Lily talked to him. Sat with him. Beside him. Sometimes in his lap, so that he could hold on to something, fucking anything, that wasn't as bitter as the lingering fear from the months before. It was hard to be afraid with Lily near him. Easier to have confidence.

Even Charle had given up.

But he knew something was going right. The hag hadn't come for him. She hadn't sent Wendy or Howl. Maybe … maybe before Le – she died, she managed to bind the bitch or kill her. Maybe that set Wendy free. Or maybe she had to kill Wendy too, but he was starting to think at the very least she had won.

There was also the bigger hope. The less likely hope. The hope he wanted more than he'd fucking wanted anything. Ever. That she was still fighting. That somehow she was keeping the hag so occupied that Wendy had to stay and fight her. Or, even better, fight _with_ her. That the hag had to stay to keep her under some sort of control.

That she was alive.

Everyday his fugitive heart beat a little stronger. A little faster.

Maybe she was alive.

When the third month ended he was smiling. Grinning. And everyone in his guild feared him. No one but Mira and the Master, and Lily of course, dared to approach him.

* * *

><p>He thought something he'd thought before. But this time it wasn't as physical as it was emotional. Again a fucking pansy thing to think, but it had gotten easier in the last few weeks. Thinking of nothing but her while trying not to think of her at all.<p>

There was darkness.

Then there was light.

Then there was Levi.

She filled his lungs, his eyes, his ears.

He whispered her name as she fell from the air. The first time he'd been able to say it in over three months. The first time he'd let himself think it, as if her name were a jinx.

And maybe it _was_ because from thin air he caught her.

And she was followed by a blinding white box of light.

He whispered again, and her face turned up. She didn't quite look at him. Her eyes were fully dilated. He knew she couldn't see. That she'd been in the dark for too long. So long. So goddamn long. That the light of the guild was too much to bear.

He put his hand over her eyes to help block some of the pain.

This time she said his name, and tears fell between his hand and her cheeks. "Did I make it? Am I home?"

It was the most important word he'd ever said. So he said it twice. "Yes. Yes."

"Thank you," and her body let go of every ounce of tension. She was limp against him, but not asleep. The box wrapped in symbols too bright to read, shook slightly. A sound rumbled through it, from it, that made his hackles rise.

People behind him. Unimportant shits, crowded around. Made too much noise. Dirtied the sound of her voice. Her breath. Her heartbeat. Sullied the smell of her life.

That they both ignored them. That they both pretended they were alone. Only that kept the bastards at bay.

"Is it Wendy?" he asked.

Her head made a small motion that he took to be a shake. "It's Howl … she's still Howl. I tried," a deep breath, "I tried to bring Wendy to the surface. To … to cast Howl from her. But I failed. I failed." He watched her as her lips trembled and and she licked them, trying to moisten the dryness and cracks. She looked like shit. Paler than ever. Hair in knots. Covered in huge, black bruises. Littered with small and large cuts.

But she was beautiful. She was alive.

"Fuck that," he told her, shaking his own head. "Fuck that. You got her here. You got her in the first place. When the barrier fell. _Goddammit_ Levi," he choked on weight of months of fear as it exited his body. On the relief that took its place. "I thought you were dead. You told me it would only go down if you died."

Sounds of surprise and anger and other emotions surrounded them, yelled and gasped from unimportant mouths.

"What is life?" she asked rhetorically with a sad smile.

"She took you again."

"For a while, yes. But I got free." The smile was less sad. Less bitter. More proud. It looked good on her.

"How did you when Wendy...?"

"I'm not sure. I have theories," the smile was a little bolder, and he laughed. The sound and the feeling of the laughter was almost completely foreign to him. Of course she had theories. "She's younger, of course. Barriers aren't her forte. I'd already freed myself once. Though I had some help doing it the first time."

Her skin got paler as her breathing became less steady. He repeated words to her that he had said in the black. Months and fucking months ago.

"No. This time, I totally can't sleep. I have to hold her," and there was a touch of shadow on the box, and a flash of light. "She's fighting me."

"She still doin that storm wyrm thing?" Curious despite the fact that he really didn't care. They were both alive. The rest would get fixed eventually.

"Yes. Though not as often as she was before."

"Then Natsu and I will handle the dragon part. Maybe we'll find Luxus for the lightening. And keep Lily the hell away. He'd have a heart attack."

The exceed was standing next to him, he noticed. Finally. A paw reached up and touched his calf. "Lightening thing?" Then the box swirled again with bright and not bright and bright again, and Lily inched a little closer to him. It wasn't obvious maybe to the others, but he could tell. He could have put a hand on his head. Picked him up or something. But Lily didn't appreciate shit like that. He was a bit ashamed by his fear, and Gajeel wouldn't do anything to draw attention to it.

"I'll still help. I'm part of Fairy Tail, so I'll help, but," the paw pressed into him and Gajeel felt the prick of claws. "But is the thunder …"

Levi smiled, but didn't look down. Didn't look to him. Eyes still covered with his large hand. "It's not so much thunder as a tornado. Would that help."

"Yeah. I'll be fine." It was all bluster, Gajeel knew, but again he wouldn't say anything. Everyone had something they didn't like. He might make fun of others, but never of Lily.

Charle, one he also was okay noticing, was on his other side. Arms crossed. Eyes narrow. "That's Wendy? Why did you put her in a cage?"

"She's only half Wendy," Levi answered, eyes still behind his hand. Still looking at no one. Voice slightly stronger for hearing the two cats. More certain that she was home and not some sort of illution. "She is sort of possessed at the moment. And a bit … um ..."

"She's crazy as hell," he filled in, when she was unable to say what were probably distressing words.

There were mumbles from behind him about Gajeel holding things back and not telling the truth and blah blah blah. What did he care about a bunch of shits who basically forgot about all three of them?

"You can hold her. Can you fix her?"

"No," and Charle made some weak, angry sound. "But Polyushka might. And she's the only one, outside of maybe Wendy herself with her own power, who can fix the eye. And obviously Wendy isn't an option now."

"Her eye?" there were other voices besides Charle's that asked that question, but it was Charle he answered.

"She lost an eye."

"And Polyushka fixed Erza's before. I'm sure she could do the same for Wendy. And she might be able to remove Howl."

"Or we could just kill the hag," Gajeel rumbled. "Unless you got to it already?" He didn't let any hope color the question, but he thought it could be a possibility.

"I'm sorry. No. It was as much as I could do, getting Wendy, and then opening the door."

"I told you to stop saying sorry. It's a load of shit. You've already managed more than I did."

"No you didn't. I don't think you ever said 'stop saying sorry'." And this smile was wry. He had to return it even if she couldn't see.

"Well that's what I meant."

"I don't really care what you meant. And I'll keep saying sorry for things I am sorry about."

"Sometimes you say sorry for shit you're not sorry about."

"That's true. I'll probably keep saying those sorrys too."

Brief silence. Except for the breathing. He took a moment to be surprised that they were still the only ones talking. That no one had jumped in, outside of the cats and the mumbles. Not even her idiots. Not even Lucy.

He let out a sigh when he couldn't keep the more serious issues out of his mind and off of his tongue.

"So she'll come then."

"Yes." As if his statement had been a question.

"How long do we have?"

Levi reached up and put a hand over his. Tugged – weakly – and he dropped it at her unsaid request. Her eyes were not as dilated, but there was something else there. She looked at him. Looked away. Squinted. Looked at him again.

One of her eyes was bruised from the cheekbone to her hairline. He hadn't noticed before.

She curled her hands in his shirt and put her forehead to his chest. Breaths caught in several throats behind him, but they were easy to ignore.

"I _want_ to hide this from you. To lie to you. But I won't," she said in a voice so quiet he could barely make out her words. Like the voice in his ear. Like the words she spoke against his lips. "Not like I did before. Though," she cocked her head up, and he saw the slightest twinkle of humor in her unbruised eye, "I was also _right_ before. But this time, I won't lie. Because I don't want you to hate me -"

"Like there's anyway in hell that could happen."

"- and because … because I don't want to be taken again." She was trembling and trying not to show it. Trying not to show her obvious fear. He looked past her fear as easily as he looked past Lily's. He'd been in the darkness too. Seen the hag. He knew what she felt. "I especially don't want her to get Wendy back. And I think … I think in the end it has to be you that takes her. And I don't think she'll kill you. She would have no problem killing anyone else."

"You can-?"

"_Yes_." it was almost a hiss. "I know that place now. I can open a door. But only for a moment. A fraction of a second, do you understand? No one can go with you. Because they'll be used against you; they'll do to you what we did to you. What I did to you. Maybe worse. Lily can't go. No one can go. And also because I can't hold it longer than that. Not and keep Wendy bound too."

"Can you do it?" he pulled on her hair to tilt her head back and force her to look in his eyes. "Not should you do it, or you think you can do it, but can you do it and survive?"

"I can. I have to. No one else can hold Wendy, and I can't afford to let her go. She's too powerful."

"Then open the door, Levi. I've got a score to settle with that hell bitch. She owes me her life." He glanced at the box and looked back down. "She owes me three lives."

"If I can hold Wendy and the door, then you cannot die, and you will come back." The seriousness in her eyes made him smile one of his darker smiles.

"No problem. I'll take care of it. Might even be fun."

"Good," she said and pulled him down to kiss him, "because if you don't I'll find away to raise you from the dead and kill you a second time." She said the words against his lips, and he nodded.

"Wouldn't expect any less."

She stepped back, and he stepped back, arms crossed, balanced on his heels, stance wide. His grin got bigger and his teeth sharper. As if he didn't mind going back. As if he didn't give a shit that he was probably going to spend another bunch of months away from her. Or as if he didn't realize that his own bravado – and hers – hid the very real possibility that he would never come back.

She raised a hand and said, "Open."

A hole of darkness unfolded between him, and in his last half a second in the light, he was sorry he didn't get to see her for just a little longer.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: So I didn't kill her. I kinda really wanted to. I wanted to see how her death would cause Gajeel to change. But then I decided her life would cause changes too. You'll notice more "L" words because he's less and less worriedconcerned about anything except Levi. So I started putting them back in.

Also I kinda love this chapter. It lacks the horror of earlier chapters (except maybe the Wendy part, she's still a little scary), but it's a bit like the part in horror books and movies where the heroes gather their strength and courage to get away from whatever monster they're dealing with. Calm before the storm, as it were.

Right now I'm looking at maybe two more chapters, and I'm still not sure who will be alive at the end. So stay tuned and all that jazz!

Thanks again Anon reviewer and to those who turn off their PM. I appreciate your support!


	10. Dark Sun for the Dark Son

When the Lights Go Out

Chapter 10

Dark Sun for the Dark Son

Going through the gate was like dying after you were given a second chance at life. There was no Levi. No light. No words to ease the darkness. No words to anchor your body to. No heartbeats to monitor time.

Okay, so there was _his_ heartbeat, but that was beyond the point.

He felt alone, but he knew he wasn't. The hag was here. Waiting for him. And he'd be willing to bet Natsu's life that Wendy's eye was lurking somewhere as well. Maybe it was still on the floor in the room it was in before.

If the rooms were what they were before.

He sensed nothing. He half suspected the hag to meet him at the door. But he wasn't surprised by this either. Waiting was its own form of suffering, and she did say she preferred to see him suffer.

So he turned left. Or what he thought of as left, and headed for the Master's rooms. Might as well see if the eye was still there. He had some barely-formed idea that it might be useful to Wendy.

Though going from what he knew of Erza's experiences, there could be a lot useful in an artificial eye too. Still, it was the only place he thought of to go. Levi's power no longer forced even this room into a set size. Even this room wasn't small. But he didn't complain about the time it took to cross. Complaining could stand in like behind the planning and the fucking huge amount of justified anger he was carrying around.

He grinned and waited to run flat into another wall.

He couldn't actually think of a way to kill the hell bitch. Since she'd never shown him the extent of her power. He'd been stupid and impatient. He should have asked Levi more questions about what happened after she kicked him out.

Like exactly how she had gotten Wendy away. How the hag acted. How it felt to be truly alone in this place.

Because it was so much different than before without Levi's words to protect him. To light a way in the darkness. How she spoke to him and smelled and sounded, reminding him that he was still alive.

Which was hard to remember now.

* * *

><p>There were the stairs. He made progress. Pride filled him. He had made <em>progress<em>.

There were tiny lights on the steps before him. It wasn't like the stairs were suddenly awash in light and free of the darkness, but he recognized the curve of each line. They were Levi's words. She had left them for him.

Something settled in the lower portion of his gut. Tingled in his fingerprints and changed the tempo of his breathing. Even when she was struggling with her own fights she thought of him. Left him help, even if it was only emotional.

The words didn't do anything except fill him with courage stronger than his own bluster. But that just might be enough.

Every step was closer to his goal. Kill the bitch who thought it was a good idea to manipulate two of the very few people in this world he actually gave a shit about.

What she did to Levi was bad enough. Way beyond bad enough. And he couldn't explain how much it made him want to rip into the soft flesh of something dark and killable. But what she did to Wendy …

They weren't as close as they could have been. He wasn't the sort of person to really get close to people. But there was something there. He watched her when she was happy. When she wasn't. Usually there were dozens of other people willing to keep her happy, to help pick her up and hold her there.

He only stepped in if he was the only choice. Because he knew he wasn't the best choice. But she was a pleasure to share breathing space with. Happy, curious, innocent, smart … and she didn't know him from Phantom Lord. That made a huge difference in how she looked at him. A huge difference that fucking meant something to him.

Most of them had forgiven him for that. Especially the ones who mattered. They wouldn't forget, they would never forget, not even if Levi kept acting as she did now. But they had all managed to _move on_. That was the most important part. Their anger and fear didn't hound him like it had at first.

But Wendy never knew any of that. She was just another dragonslayer, and with Lily and after the fight in Edolas that was even more true. He couldn't say he loved her, because he didn't, not really, but in some way she was _his_. Maybe not like she was Charle's or Natsu's. The people who stepped up first. First to teach, first to give praise, first to lecture when a rare wrong was committed. But she was a part of his guild. For a short time she was trained somewhat like him. She had been more cared for, but there was some commonality between the dragonslayers.

There was some commonality in being new to a guild. She came from a fake one who loved her and lied to her. He saw the sadness and distance in her eyes in the down seconds. The tightness of her arms when she held Charle. He knew there was some part of her that thought it might all fall apart and leave her. That her cat was the only one she could trust not to go away.

He had never wanted to be alone, but for a long time he had no choice. Now it was the thing she feared most, and he would do what he could – from behind her, without her knowing – to keep her from ever feeling what he'd felt.

And then this bitch turned her into a machine. Made her try and kill her friends. Made her rip out her own goddamned eye!

That stretched his feelings of undefined care to something far more primal. They were all his nakama by now, and he thought of Levi in more than a simple way, but the girl … the girl was _his_. She was something more … and his actions now would reflect that difference.

His lips parted and his teeth sharpened on his thoughts. The bitch would die for what she did, but he'd make sure she realized the scope of her wrongdoing, her crime, before she went.

Those sharp teeth and steel arms would know blood before he returned home. And his ears would echo with the sound of her last breath.

* * *

><p>It was impossible to stay so angry for as long as he climbed. Because of the words he could see some, but it was all he could do to focus on the stairs in the dark. They'd already extended more than ten times the length that they should be. That they were in his version of reality. That they were in his guild.<p>

He hadn't fallen yet, but he expected traps on each stair. There were none. His nose found nothing. His ears only heard the fall of his feet against what must have been would, though the acoustics of the darkness and different size of the room altered the sound in an undefinable way.

Then eyes that saw only black and words caught a sliver of gray. It was above him to the left. Makarov's rooms. Directly on the stairs, not the hallway. The hall it usually faced. But then the stairway had run past the length of that too.

Makarov's rooms. Where he first saw her use Wendy as a surrogate body. First took Levi's control away. First had her hate herself. Doubt herself. By hurting him.

Where the eye was waiting for him.

Watching for him.

He turned into the door and saw it there. Still on the floor. Facing the entrance. Bright and wide and brown and black. There was very little of Wendy left in that eye.

This time it shone with something new.

Excitement.

* * *

><p>The air was dead. Nothing he could destroy. Except the eye, and that wasn't what he needed. That was for Wendy.<p>

"Welcome back Dark Son. Has your memory grown? Have your thoughts widened since the return of your bookwhore and my tiny walking death? You know the longer you stay here the more of her former compatriots she devours."

"I'll leave that shit to Wendy and my guild. You underestimate Fairy Tail if you think she'll kill them before they save her."

"Do I?" the voice in the air was tinted with laughter. Though it didn't actually laugh. "They would still be trapped in the darkness if I hadn't freed them after I satisfied my own ends. I think it is you who expects too much of them."

His nose flared, but with no body there was no scent. He couldn't tell if the hag was lying to him. Couldn't do anything to destroy her. Could only glare. Bitch.

Bitch.

"I tell no lies. I gave the light back to them when I returned the sword mage. I had no need to hold them anymore. No need to waste my power on those unimportant pieces of trash."

A low growl vibrated in his vocal cords. It was difficult to keep his mouth shut. But he remembered that he had thought much worse of them. Said much worse to them. He would kill the bitch, but not over something like that. It would be for Wendy. For Levi. For him.

"I took the red-headed sword user first because I assumed you would be most drawn to someone with power. That if anyone drew your eye or your care it would be one who could match you. What a surprise it was that you reacted to her disappearance with the same response you would give to any acquaintance or casual friend.

"But then I saw you with the little girl. The sky mage. When you searched. I heard the word mage with her books. I knew then that those were the two who would cause you the pain needed to bring you into my domain."

The more he listened the less he moved. This place was gray where the rest was dark, but tendrils of that dark had slipped into the room and taken him from behind when he wasn't looking. To bent on the hags words, which came from somewhere in front of him. Somewhere behind the eye.

Shit.

Arms bound to his side. Feet bound to the floor. Neck wrapped in shadow. All he had was his mouth. All he had were words. And words were never his power. He could not beat her with declarations. So he asked questions instead. Questions to keep her at bay while he tried to figure out an escape. And a way to destroy her when she had no body.

He pulled and pulled and pulled and roared and turned his entire body into a weapon. But there was nothing to kill. Nothing at all.

"Why could you take them with nothing but only me with the fucking pain?" All he had was the movement of his hands and fingers. His mouth. His eyes. Some bend in his knees. Shit.

"I can't see how you don't know. Not know what you are."

"I know what I am!" he roared again. Fighting his bindings. More movement in his hands. It wasn't as strong as when Levi was made to hurt him. Levi had taken some power from her.

"I suppose you know enough about yourself now to survive, but you don't ask the questions that matter."

"And what the hell should I be asking?"

"Why are you a dragonslayer?"

"I thought this wasn't about my goddamn dragon. Why do you fucking care? Why would I give a flying horse shit about _why_?"

"It's not about the dragons. It's about the magic. The power. Not about those fool lizards who taught dragon-slaying magic to those who could use it against them. It has nothing to do with those who are criminals to their own kind.

"This is about you. You and those two others. And the others after them. But right now it's about you. Why, out of all the people in the world were _you_ chosen to learn one of the rarest magics in existence?"

"How the fuck would I know? For half my life the jackass was …" he clinched his jaw. He didn't want to talk about any of this shit, but he had to keep her talking to make any progress himself. "That jackass was the only thing in my life when I was a little brat. I didn't ask questions because he didn't give a damn about questions."

"Nothing is learned without questions. If you accept everything as what it is, then you are a fool. And I suffer no fools, Dark Son. Fools are to be destroyed." The voice was clearer. The gray room darkened into the usual black. The eye no longer stared at him because it too was lost to the darkness.

Then, as always there was light.

But no Levi.

No Wendy.

This time she had no one to steal. No one to imitate. Not even the first woman he saw her in during that guild illusion. Her true form was before him. Absorbing light. Tossing light aside.

Her skin was black oil. Her eyes green as hard emeralds. Her claws glittered sharp on the end of long fingers were hard steel. Her lips were copper. Her hair long strands of spider web. The shift draped over her was white. Too white. It hurt the eyes.

She was ancient but ageless. He'd seen it before in his dragon.

"I cannot express to you my rage. The bookwhore is gone, and she took Howl from me. Not that you will get your Wendy back, but that she was taken from me is an unforgivable offense. But she is not here to pay for that offense. You are. And you will."

"Yeah? Well I'm angry too. You're the bitch who took us all in the first place. You're the one who hurt the guild. _You're_ the one who tried to destroy Wendy and Levi. You didn't lose them. You didn't have them taken from you. They were rescued from the creature that stole them."

The emeralds darkened, deepened. She lifted a hand. The skin on her palm parted like fleshy curtains, and an eye looked out. Blinking as if only now coming awake.

Fuck.

That was Wendy's eye, wasn't it?

"With this eye I can see everything, Dark Son. I already know your memories, but I can also see the truth that you refuse to acknowledge. I see the things you would rather forget. So I'll ask you again: Why are you a dragonslayer?"

"I said that I don't know, bitch. Lay off it already!" With every bit of his power he pushed forward, stretching his bindings to hit the creature who finally existed in her true physical form. Was finally killable.

He broke free. Swung his blade. Felt it hit something. Felt it break.

There was something wet on his face.

It wasn't her blood.

She had no blood.

The sensation of falling into unconsciousness was becoming very familiar.

* * *

><p>"All elements have two sides. Soft side. Hard side. The hearth fire, sun fire, controlled fire. The wild fire and molten fire. The wind and breeze. The violent storm. The life giving water. The killing floods and raging seas."<p>

The voice entered his ears before the image of her pierced his eyes. He was nothing but agony from one part of his body to the next. All of him hurt. One part of his … his … he couldn't feel most of it. Eyes. Hands. Chest.

Hand. Not hands.

Fuck he hurt.

Hand?

Even if the blade broke his hand ...

Where were his legs?

The voice from the oil woman continued.

"This had nothing, nothing to do with the dragons who stole our hard work. Stole the seeds that were planted to create ordered and disordered change in the world. The seeds from which you eventually grew. Though it is amusing, that you think some part of you is human. But it is unacceptable that you would forget me. I am the one who gave you your power. It is me who directed your creation. Your mission.

"But the dragons took all of you. Which we accepted because you would still do the job you had been given. Even the dragons couldn't take that which we had planted. Even if you would destroy at his whims and not those given to you by the hard earth.

"But you still destroyed, and that was enough.

"Now, however, you have stopped. You radiate kindness, like a disease. You _stopped_. And in stopping you have weakened me. I planted the seed of the hard earth. That seed became you. When you emerged from the rock, you were perfect. All edges with no center. No softness. Your eyes cut even me. You would be death to the world. There was no controlling my rage when you were taken, but I saw, eventually, the benefits.

"The dragon took you and enhanced that unbridled power. Made it into something controlled. Something less than what you could have been. But still you managed to create discord as the dark earth should. The hard earth is greed, and hard, and deathless. But you no longer embody those things as you once did. Your greeds are small, simple, _human_ things. Your hardness has left the steel of your bones and moved into your soft heart. To _protect _others_. _To _serve _others. And you are no longer deathless. No longer the hard diamond that will last forever. The metal in you bends now. Breaks now. And you will die, as you would not have before.

"If you continue down this path you will destroy the delicate world, and that is against all of my plans. You have unbalanced the hard and soft of earth. And so you must either die, so I can use your energy to create another seed. Another _lesser_ seed because it is reused power and newborn. Or if you live, you must live as you were created. Live at your own pleasure.

"And destroy at mine."

He clinched his teeth trying not to listen. Trying to get away. But his ears were too good, and he heard everything despite his wants.

"Like fuck I will," he muttered testing his bonds with the one arm he could feel.

Her response was not colored with any emotion. It was fact as hard as the most perfect rock. "Then you will die."

"What about the others. Salamander and the girl you stole. What about them?"

"Soft side of fire. Soft side of air. Turnable of course, as you were turned. Made into the soft side of earth," she spat. Her eyes went from green to gold and then back. "The air girl made a useable model for the hard side of air. The storm. The wyrm. The dragon's distant kin, but beholden to us and not free as they are free."

She moved closer to him. So close her could feel the rot in her breath and feel the gaze of the eye in her hand as it touched his shoulder.

His legs. Where the fuck were his legs?

… wh … where the fuck were his hands?

"If you can't do what I need you to do, you must be replanted.

"And I will start over."

His hand broke free. Lashed at her once more. The hand was his own. Not iron. Not steel. Flesh. It touched her. Hit her. But she did not bend. She was not human. She was one half of the earth. Greater than anything living.

She did not even blink those emerald eyes.

He felt the bones in his hand shatter.

Why did he think of blue hair?

Soft lips?

A smile … who would smile at him?

It was the last thing he thought.

The black this time didn't feel like unconsciousness. It felt like hitting a wall.

Levi …

* * *

><p>Author's note: One more chapter.<p>

To the Anon reviewer: I think Gajeel IS harder on them than they deserve, but at the same time I think he would be. Because they would do their best to move on. I'm not saying they actually don't care, but it's not like they haven't lost members before. Lisanna for example died, and they managed the strength needed to accomplish their day to day. A whole group of people can't just stop their lives for 4 months. People die, people disappear, and still we have to go on. Regardless of our grief, we have to go on.

I think Gajeel attacks them so much because he hurts so much. Instead of showing fully his own grief and his own fears, he compensates by attacking those around him who aren't, as he measures it, as loyal. Turns his grief outward as scorn instead of keeping it inside where it might change him in some way that he doesn't trust. Having spent a lot of time with grief growing up and earlier this year, I think everyone has their own path there. Some laugh, some tell jokes, some spend their days locked in themselves or locked in some physical space. Some change their lives completely. Some lash out in violence and anger, and some show little because they feel that pushing their grief on others only leads to more pain.

And almost everyone moves on with their day to day. We speak words to our families, to our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our cousins, our aunts and uncles, our grandparents, our friends, doing what we can to help, but since we weren't there with them, since our grief isn't on the same level as theirs, we ourselves begin to feel hopeless. We don't know the right words or the right actions. We fear that any action we take will be wrong. And so we draw away. To give them space we might say, to give them the time they need.

Sometimes you move on and try to pretend it didn't happen. You don't say their name or think of them in a way that might remind you they're gone. It's true of death, and it's true of disappearance. I might have been a little hard on the guild, sure, but I don't think I was that far off the mark.


	11. The Long Goodbye

Beginning note: So. This is it. It was a fun like … two or three weeks. I loved writing this. But midterms are coming followed closely by grading midterms, so business will probably keep me off the site for a bit. I hope everyone enjoys and please review!

Thank you ALL so much. And to the Anon, since there are no more chapters to thank you in: Thank you in advance! :*

When the Lights Go Out

Chapter 11

The Long Goodbye

Polyusica took one look at the box that held Wendy and said she would have to be freed of the possession before anything else was done.

That was difficult.

She, Polyusica, and Fried all worked on the spells to remove Howl. It took over a week. They only knew she was herself again when she stopped trying to kill them while they worked their spells. Wendy wouldn't look at any of them. Wouldn't go near Levi. Or anyone else.

Not even Charle.

She could have healed her own eye, Charle told them in whispers while Wendy sat at a table in the corner. Porlyusica could have healed it if she didn't have faith in her own powers. But Wendy would let no one do anything about the eye.

She bandaged it without saying a word to anyone. Penned her hair in a way that covered the bandage and half of her face. In the mornings when people came in, everyone noticed the slight tear stains on her cheek, but no one brought it up.

She was a constant person of conversations, but only when none of them were in the building with her. Some forced their way to her side. Charle. Master Makarov. Mirajane. Lisanna. Natsu. Lucy. But she did not acknowledge them.

Levi suspected she'd come out of it. But it would take a while. And it would take Gajeel back, telling her she shouldn't be upset. Levi understood more than she herself would say. _She_ kept a happy face, and an upbeat tone.

Wendy made no sound. Offered no words to any of them.

One month.

* * *

><p>Levi noticed that wherever Wendy sat, she could always see the space in the air where Gajeel should come back. Where Gajeel <em>would<em> come back. Where they had come back.

Her face was always neutral. No smiles. No frowns. Nothing.

But still she waited.

Levi didn't encroach on her space. She respected the girl's fear. The girl's guilt. But she couldn't help watching either. She didn't expect him back quite yet. If they'd been gone for four months after Gajeel returned, than he would likely be gone at least four months. Probably longer. Maybe a lot longer.

It was a big job he took on. An imp - …. no. Not impossible. But hard. A hard mission.

Not impossible.

Two months. She wasn't crying yet.

She dreamed of him.

* * *

><p>Wendy wasn't coming home. Her rooms in Fairy Hills were covered in dust. Levi cleaned for her when she remembered. If the girl decided to come home, she wanted her to have a place to go that she wouldn't have to worry about.<p>

Slowly, so as not to scare her, Levi sat closer and closer to her. Charle had done the same, but a little faster. Wendy wouldn't touch her. Charle probably never went home either. Though the Queen did come see her once, and Levi watched Charle crying on her shoulder in a back room for hours.

Happy skipped missions with Natsu and their team to spend time next to Charle.

Pantherlily kept by her side most of the time.

So did Jet and Droy at times. They were so happy she came back alive that they almost didn't know what to do. She encouraged them to take two-man jobs as a favor to her. So that she could pay her bills and together they could buy food for Wendy.

Mira wouldn't take their money after the first month. But Levi sent them out anyway. It gave them something to do. It freed her of the guilt of keeping them leashed to her. She had enough guilt as it was.

She was still going home. Still taking showers and baths. She always had books to read. She studied some on what might be going on in the other level. On why Gajeel might have been chosen. She talked to Natsu. Wished she could talk with Wendy; she would know better than anyone.

But Wendy was silent.

And Levi found nothing in her books. Nothing in her dreams.

Three months.

* * *

><p>Unlike Gajeel, her hope didn't grow as the months went by. She knew he was alive when he started, and the hag wouldn't come to let them know she won.<p>

Though maybe she would.

To gloat. To try and reclaim Wendy. To throw his body at them.

She was dreaming of things like that now. Though she also had dreams of his grin. Dreams of the way his skin felt under her hands.

Dreams of his laugh. Of his voice when he tried to protect them.

Of his face the last time she saw him.

She wished she had lied.

Four months. The days were getting longer.

* * *

><p>She slept so that she could see him. It was the only place she could find him.<p>

Wendy didn't sleep at all. Not that she ever saw. And she saw her more and more. Levi didn't go home much anymore either. To clean. Her place. Wendy's place. She brought books, but her eyes didn't stay on the page as much.

Jet and Droy still ran their jobs across her. Sometimes. Sometimes they didn't even come say hi between. Just went for the board. Picked something. Left again. They were hurt. She knew she hurt them, but how could she go when she knew he had watched for her?

How could she abandon him when he never lost faith in her?

Five months.

* * *

><p>Wendy was losing weight. She ate less. Cried less. Blinked less. Sometimes her hands were in her lap. Other times her hands were on the table, and she rested her chin on them. Levi thought maybe it was getting harder for her to hold up her head. Levi thought that it was only her magic keeping her going.<p>

It was healing magic. How hard would it be to kill her?

But she was wasting away slowly. Levi could see it. And it was seeing it in Wendy that allowed her to see it in herself.

She held Lily sometimes and wept. He didn't say anything about that. He put his paws on her forearms, and his soft body was always still. Easy to hold. He did nothing to startle her. He was so strong. So strong to be there for her when she knew he was hurting too.

Together they watched.

But nothing ever happened.

Six months.

* * *

><p>Seven months.<p>

* * *

><p>Eight months.<p>

* * *

><p>They were all forced home. Bathed. Put in their beds. Fed. Well Wendy was. Levi was able to do those things for herself still.<p>

Levi hadn't near reached the state that Wendy had, but she knew what she was doing was unhealthy. She knew she should take better care of herself.

Wendy was trapped in her room with Charle and Juvia to take care of her. Levi hit her books. Pantherlily lived with her now. He said it was his job to watch her. Watch her while they waited. That she was the one his partner loved best, and that meant while Gajeel was gone he had to do what he could to protect her as he would have.

If he were here.

But he wasn't.

She held Lily when she slept. Like Gajeel used to hold him. She could still find him in her dreams. She still had that at least.

Nine months.

* * *

><p>Ten months.<p>

* * *

><p>Eleven months.<p>

* * *

><p>A year.<p>

* * *

><p>On the one year anniversary Levi arrived at the guild early. Wendy was already there. Both of them had been working off and on, but never big jobs. Never anything that would take them away from Magnolia for very long.<p>

Levi slept every night at Fairy Hills because she knew Wendy was only sleeping in daylight. Part of it, Charle had told her in secret, was that she had nightmares in her sleep. And that they were lessened if she slept in sunlight than in darkness.

Wendy feared the dark now perhaps more than she feared anything.

Except maybe lightening. She looked like she was being tortured when the heat cut through the sky.

It was also something that Levi could understand, but then Levi could only find him in darkness, so she slept in darkness. Every night. Seeking him out. Reminding herself that once … once he had been real.

The guild filled that day. Because everyone had remembered. It eased her bitter feelings about them and their happiness. Not that she begrudged them their joy, but it hurt her. And she knew it tore at Wendy.

But they had to live their own lives. Levi realized that. She could not hate them for having their laughter and their groups of smiles. But she thought Wendy might. That she might hate everything. She talked now, but her words were soft and rare.

The poor girl was more than heartbroken. More than traumatized. She felt guilty. That it was her fault. She was the reason he had gone to die. Levi knew it, though the girl said nothing of it, and tried to tell her that she shouldn't take any guilt on herself.

It was Levi who opened the door.

Levi who told him to go.

Levi who refused to lie, when lying would have kept him with her.

She wanted more than dreams. She wanted his flesh. His heart. His mouth. His laughter. His _life_.

But she had sent him away.

Sound was hushed as the guild looked to the empty space in the middle of the room. There was a reverence there that she'd never felt in all her time in the guild. And they waited. As the sun rose. And the sun moved. As the sun died.

Night was born.

Shadow filled the hall. In the corners where light did not reach.

Shadow filled the center. A door into nothing.

The sound of metal on wood was heard. But nothing else.

Levi was the only one who moved. When the door faded.

A pile of iron rivets. And a brown eye.

She did not cry.

She would not cry.

She would never cry.

* * *

><p>End<p>

* * *

><p>Author's Note: so yeah. First, I know it might not seem like it, but seriously the worst part of this is that Levi will never know <em>why<em> this happened. It was explained to Gajeel, but Levi will never know. Wendy will never know. NO ONE will ever know. And that's really sad. Second; I know a lot of you were hoping, and possibly expecting, a happy ending. But this was a horror story from the very start. Everyone can't be happy at the end of a horror story. In fact most people should be not happy. And someone has to die. I'm sorry, but that's just the way shit goes sometimes.

And trust me no one struggled with this harder than me. I love Gajeel. And I totally want him and Levi to be happy, but I didn't think it would work. So. Sorry. But … yeah. If you want happy: Plans and Executions is happy. Rusty Red is happy. Only Her; happy. Somewhere in the Middle; perhaps too happy.

When the Lights Go Out … not happy.

To my Anon: Thank you for every comment. You are a fantastic reviewer! I wasn't offended by the comment on 9; I wanted you to see where I was coming from. I've been one of those disappearing/pretend it's not happening people. And I've been on the other side too. So I wanted to let you (and anyone else who read that extremely long rant!) to know I wasn't making it up from whole cloth. That it was actually a part of the story with meaning to me! But thank you for letting me know your feelings on that too.

And YAY! A new Ga/Le fan! The more the merrier!


	12. Epilogue: Seed

When the Lights Go Out

Epilogue

Seed

She wasn't entirely sure what compelled her to bury the piercings in the small garden behind Fairy Hills. Sure it's were she and Lily lived. But …

But …

Ah, it didn't matter. That's what she did. That's where she buried them.

Where she buried the only thing left of him.

Where she buried what she sometimes thought as the only thing left of _her_.

But that was seven years ago. Seven long, long years. She had learned that she was strong enough to keep sorrow from killing her. So had Wendy. So had everyone else.

But not dying and actually moving on were different things. Seven years and she never forgot her love for him. She looked at other men. Had even dated other men. Let them touch her. Let them kiss her. But it was never the same. It was never right.

Seven years and she still missed him.

Always on the anniversary of his … not his death, they didn't know when exactly that was, but the anniversary of his … his return. Always on the anniversary of his return, she, Pantherlily, and Wendy would visit the small memorial where his piercings were buried.

His piercings and Wendy's eye. She didn't want it back, and she decided that it belonged with what remained of Gajeel. It came back with him, so it should stay with him, was her assessment of the situation.

Levy had never really understood that, but she never argued with the girl's wishes either.

So every year they visited the resting place of Gajeel's iron and Wendy's sight, and spoke soft words of their love for him. Their remembrance of his loss. Their gratefulness for the time they had with him. Their wish for his peace, wherever he was now.

Every year.

Every year.

But on this year. The Seventh Year. Something was different. Something had changed.

The three of them walked to the garden after sharing a large breakfast. Each brought with them a utensil or some other scrap of metal to lay at the foot of the modest marker. She was pretty sure they were carried off by birds; none of the metal they left ever stayed long, but it was the thought that counted. And the ritual of it that mattered.

They reached the place. Expecting the steal grave marker and green grass.

What they found was an infant.

Still. Calm.

With dark hair.

And ruby eyes.

Levy lost the power in her legs. She almost screamed. Almost expected that it was a nightmare. She had plenty of those, after. But they'd faded in recent years.

Faded, but not gone completely.

She'd dreamed of children before. Of course she did. When desire and sorrow mixed. Of course she did.

But never children on his grave. Never a child that looked so much …

Lily crept to him. Cautious. It was clear he suspected danger.

Yes. Yes. That was smart. It couldn't be what it seemed. It was a trap.

And anyway, what it seemed was impossible.

Impossible.

And cruel as well. So cruel.

Seven years and a baby upon his grave.

"I don't sense anything. It's just a child," Lily said, his voice clear with no hints of emotion. He hadn't touched the thing.

Hadn't touched the boy.

Naked on the grass. Alone for who knew how long. Untouched. Unfed. A child that size should be crying. Should be frustrated and angry. Greedy with his hunger and his fear of the alien world that surrounded him.

But he was still. And calm. And made no sounds.

"Dark Son of the Dark Earth," Wendy whispered at her side. She hadn't moved either. But she hadn't lost her strength and fallen to the ground either.

"I still remember," Levy replied. "I still remember her calling him that. But I never found, in all my research, what it might mean. You didn't know either. What could it mean?"

"I'm not sure." Lily was kneeling next to the boy, studying him closely. Wendy watched. "I'm not sure. I only remember bits and pieces. But it's obvious isn't it? 'Dark Son of the Dark Earth'. She took what he was and she made what she took into this."

"So it's him," Levy only just managed the whisper.

"No. Some bit of his power, maybe, but it can't be him. It can't be."

Lily lifted the child, gently. Held him like he'd held children before. Levy couldn't remember him much with children. Not of that size.

"But it's his eyes. Without the … without the age. The experience. But they're his eyes!" She was almost crying. Almost. But not yet. She pushed herself from the ground. Forced strength into her body to keep her standing, and Lily brought the child to her.

"Gajeel," she whispered, and Wendy said 'no'.

"I will take care of him," Lily said. Eyes on the child. Soft look on his face. "It's no problem. I will watch him."

"No!" Wendy said again. Louder this time and fear behind the word. "Dark Son of the Dark Earth! She made him, don't you understand! He's not for us. She'll take him again. It'll happen _again_! He might as well," her voice broke, "he might as well be an illusion for all he means something to us. He's not ours to keep."

The girl. Young woman. She ran to the marker. Ran to where the child had rested, and dug in the earth. Ripping up chunks of grass and throwing great fistfuls of soil above and behind her. She looked wild. Crazed.

Levy had not seen her look that way in years.

But even that, even concern for a dear friend couldn't keep her eyes from the small boy. "Gajeel," she whispered again, and reached out a trembling fingertip to brush his cheek. Reassured that he was solid. Real. Levy opened her hand and brushed it through the fine wisps of his dark hair.

"So soft. He was never so soft."

"He wasn't a baby either," Lily reminded her, but his expression too was one of awe and guarded happiness.

"Here!" Wendy said, pulling a dirty box from the ground. It was the box they'd placed Gajeel's piercings in. And Wendy's eye. Wendy wrenched the thing open. Looked inside. Made a sound between a sob and a yell and showed them the emptiness in the box. No metal. No eye.

"She _made _him! He's hers! She sent the metal back so she could build a new … a new subject from the remains of the old. The one she _killed_. Levy. Lily. You _can't_ act like this is a second chance. It's not. It's _not_. Ten years. Fifteen. Twenty. Now. I don't know! But she'll take him again. We'll go through it all again."

Levy smiled and touched the boy's face once again. "I know you're afraid. I'm not entirely sure either. But he won't be the Dark Son of the Dark Earth. He won't be Gajeel. Not _our_ Gajeel. The old Gajeel. There are no more dragons, so he can't be a dragonslayer. And whatever hardness there was in Gajeel's childhood, he won't face with Lily and me. He won't be the Dark Son of the Dark Earth. He will be another happy son of Fairy Tail." She looked at Lily and he smiled at her with the shimmer of tears in his eyes.

"His name is Demir. And he is mine. He is Lily's. He is the guild's. He will not be hers."

"But she made him," Wendy insisted. Coming closer. Clutching the box to her abdomen. "She made him. It had to be for a reason. She had to expect to take him back. To raise him as her own! For whatever reason, he has to be hers. She'll take him _again_, Levy!"

"I'd like to see her try," was her answer.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: So yeah. No idea why I did this. The piercings as seeds were my idea for a "happy" ending in the last official chapter, but I didn't go with it because … well I didn't think it was right. Horror and all. But then tonight I just couldn't let go of it. That image of a baby from the earth.<p>

So here it is. A somewhat happy epilogue. But Wendy has a point. It's probably bittersweet. The Dark Earth made him for some purpose, just as she did the first time. Will she take him again when he strays from her path once more? Will she kill Levy this time for being the cause of another failure? Destroy the guild?

Or will Fairy Tail defeat one-half of the power of the Earth?

We'll never know. I'm not writing any more of this! Seriously. I'm not. I refuse! I have to do something DIFFERENT!


End file.
